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THE    ATHEN^UM    PRESS    SERIES 

G.  L.  KITTREDGE  AND  C.  T.  WINCHESTER 
GENERAL  EDITORS 


THOMAS  GRAY. 


SELECTIONS 


FROM  THE  POETRY  AND  PROSE  OF 


THOMAS    GRAY 


EDITED 

With  an  Introduction  and  Notes 

BY 
WILLIAM    LYON    PHELPS 

A.M.  (harvard),  PH.D.  (yALE) 
INSTRUCTOR  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE  AT  YALE  COLLEGE 


GINN  AND  COMPANY 

BOSTON     •     NEW  YORK     •    CHICAGO     •     LONDON 
ATLANTA     •     DALLAS     •     COLUMBUS     •     SAN  FRANCISCO 


Copyright,  1894 
By  WILLIAM   LYON   PHELPS 


ALL   RIGHTS    RESERVED 


517.11 


GINN   &   COMPANY  .  PRO- 
PRIETORS .  BOSTON  •  U.S.A. 


TO    THE    CLASS    OF 

1896 

YALE    COLLEGE 

WITH    SINCERE    AFFECTION 

AND    RESPECT 


^39064 


PREFACE. 


-•o*- 


If  there  is  any  excuse  needed  for  another  edition  of 
Gray,  it  may  be  said  that  selections  from  both  his  poetry 
and  his  prose  are  not  commonly  found  in  one  volume. 
Nor,  in  spite  of  claims  to  the  contrary,  have  any  of  the 
recent  editions  faithfully  followed  the  authentic  texts. 
In  this  volume,  no  pains  have  been  spared  to  give  as 
accurate  a  text  as  possible  ;  for  the  poems  numbered  in 
the  Contents  I,  II,  III,  V,  VII,  IX,  XI,  XIV,  XV,  XVI, 
the  text  has  been  taken  letter  for  letter  from  the  Poems 
of  1768,  the  standard  London  edition  revised  and  edited 
by  Gray  himself,  and  therefore  the  authority  for  every- 
thing it  contains.  The  Long  Story  has  been  taken  from 
the  sumptuous  Six  Poems  folio  of  1753,  the  only  text  of 
that  poem  edited  by  its  author.  The  Ode  for  Music  has 
been  taken,  with  the  same  scrupulous  accuracy,  from  the 
original  quarto  of  1769.  The  Sonnet  has  been  copied 
from  the  MS.  facsimile  given  by  Mr.  Gosse  in  the  fourth 
volume  of  Gray's  Works  (Macmillan,  1884),  which  differs 
in  a  number  of  details  from  the  printed  copy  in  the  very 
same  edition.  The  text  of  the  other  poems,  which  are 
of  much  less  importance,  is  based  on  a  collation  of 
Mason,  Gosse  and  Bradshaw,  although  Mason's  Com- 
mentary to  the  Alliance^  p.  10,  is  given  verbatim  as  he 
printed  it  in  1775.  It  may  be  safely  said  that  the  text  of 
the  poems  in  this  volume  is  closer  to  the  original  editions 
than  anything  published  since  Gray's  death.     The  poems 


VI 


PREFACE. 


that  have  been  omitted  altogether  are  those  parts  of  his 
remains  that  now  have  little  interest,  and  no  permanent 
value. 

The  Prose  has  been  taken  from  Mr.  Gosse's  four- 
volume  edition  of  Gray,  mentioned  above.  I  greatly 
regret  that  the  Rev.  D.  C.  Tovey's  edition  of  Gray's 
Letters,  already  announced  by  Macmillan,  has  not  yet 
appeared.  Mr.  Tovey  is  so  accurate  a  scholar,  and  so 
sensible  an  editor,  that  anything  he  undertakes  is  sure  to 
be  done  well. 

Gray's  own  notes  to  those  of  his  poems  published  in 
1768,  have  been  exactly  reproduced  (misprints,  mistakes 
and  all)  in  this  volume,  and  will  be  found,  where  he  him- 
self had  them  printed,  as  foot-notes  to  the  text  ;  but  in 
my  notes  exact  line  references  have  been  given  for  all  of 
Gray's  quotations,  and  the  errors  or  misprints  are  cor- 
rected there. 

In  most  cases  indebtedness  to  previous  editors  is 
mentioned  wherever  it  occurs  ;  but  for  some  common- 
place references  and  references  to  other  passages  of  Gray 
it  has  not  been  thought  necessary  in  every  instance  to 
give  the  names  of  editors  who  have  also  noted  these 
points.  A  considerable  number  of  parallel  passages  will 
be  found  in  the  notes  ;  this  does  not  imply  that  the  editor 
is  insinuating  a  lack  of  originality  on  Gray's  part,  nor  on 
the  other  hand  is  any  attempt  made  at  a  pedantic  display. 
In  the  case  of  so  eclectic  a  poet,  the  most  striking  parallel 
passages  are  particularly  interesting.  Gray  himself  gives 
a  few  parallel  passages  in  his  own  foot-notes  ;  but  the 
similarities  in  these  are  usually  not  so  noticeable  as  in 
those  he  does  not  give.  Gray's  poerris  reflect  his  read- 
ing ;  but  to  accuse  him  of  plagiarism  would  be,  as  Mr. 
Lowell  said,  like  finding  fault  with  a  man  for  pillaging 
the  dictionary. 


PREFACE.  vii 

The  notes  on  the  poems  are  meant  to  be  sufficiently 
full  for  all  practical  needs  and  purposes  ;   those  on  the    • 
prose  are  very  few,  and  simply  explanatory.      It  did  not 
seem  fitting  to  burden   Gray's   delightful    letters  with  a 
mass  of  annotation. 

The  poems  are  printed  in  the  order  in  which  they  were 
written  ;  this  is  not  only  interesting  in  itself,  but  throws 
considerable  light  on  Gray's  remarkable  change  of  taste 
—  his  transition  from  Classicism  to  Romanticism.  The 
selections  from  the  prose  also  indicate  this  fact,  and  a 
separate  section  of  the  Introductio7i  is  devoted  to  a  dis- 
cussion of  what  might  be  called  Gray's  poetic  evolution. 
Although  to  students  of  the  development  of  literature, 
this  should  be  the  most  significant  and  interesting  feature 
of  Gray's  work,  it  is  a  thing  that  editors  and  critics  have 
strangely  neglected.  The  view  given  in  the  Infrodiictioji 
is  founded  on  patient  study  and  thought.  Some  parts  of 
it  have  been  reprinted  from  my  chapter  on  Gray  in  The 
Begi7i7ii?igs  of  the  English  Ro77iafitic  Move77ie7it^  Ginn  &  Co., 
1893. 

The  general  editors  of  the  Athenaeum  Press  series 
have  given  constant  and  valuable  assistance.  Professor 
Kittredge  has  not  only  written  an  Appendix  on  Gray's 
knowledge  of  Norse,  a  subject  on  which  Mr.  Gosse 
has  strangely  blundered,  but  throughout  the  Notes, 
especially  those  on  the  Norse  poems  (of  which  language 
the  present  editor  has  no  knowledge)  has  steadily  fur- 
nished me  with  facts  and  suggestions.  Professor  Albert 
S.  Cook  and  Doctor  Hanns  Oertel  of  Yale,  have  kindly 
given  aid  in  verifying  some  references. 

W.  L.  P. 

Yale  College,  22  February  1894. 


CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTION. 

Page 

I.   Life xiii 

II.   Gray's  Sterility xvii 

III.  Chief  Influences  that  affected  Gray's  Style  xx 

IV.  Gray's  Progress  toward  Romanticism xxii 

V.   Gray's  Prose xxix 

VI.   Chronological  Table xxxiv 

VII.   Bibliography xxxv 

Appendix  —  Gray's  Knowledge  of  Norse xli 

POEMS. 

I.   Ode  on  the  Spring i 

II.   Ode  on  a  Distant  Prospect  of  Eton  College  3 

III.  Hymn  to  Adversity 6 

IV.  Sonnet 8 

V.   Ode  on  the  Death  of  a  Favourite  Cat 9 

VI.   The  Alliance  of  Education  and  Government  10 

VII.   Elegy  Written  in  a  Country  Church- Yard..  16 

VIII.   A  Long  Story 21 

'   IX.   The  Progress  of  Poesy 26 

X.   Ode  on  the  Pleasure  arising  from  Vicissitude  33 

XI.  The  Bard 35 

XII.   Sketch  of  his  Own  Character 43 

XIII.   Song 43 


X  •  CONTENTS. 

Page 

XIV.   The  Fatal  Sisters 44 

^.    XV.   The  Descent  of  Odin 47 

'  XVI.   The  Triumphs  of  Owen 51 

XVII.   The  Death  of  Hoel 52 

XVIII.   Caradoc  53 

XIX.   Conan 54 

XX.    William  Shakespeare 54 

XXI.   Ode  for  Music 55 


PROSE. 

I.   AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL:  — 

College  Life 61 

Melancholy 62 

Sketch  of  his  Own  Character  63 

Melancholy 64 

The  Office  of  Poet  Laureate 64 

Attitude  toward  Life 66 

Melancholy 67 

Gray's  Mother 67 

Consolation 68 

Sympathy 68 

The  Shadow  of  Death 69 

The  Ode  on  Walpole's  Cat 69 

The  Elegy 70 

The  Elegy 7 1 

The  Elegy ; 72 

The  Progress  of  Poesy 73 

The  "Six  Poems"  of  1753 73 

The  Pindaric  Odes 74 

The  Pindaric  Odes 76 

His  Own  Aim  in  Poetry 77 

His  Sterility 78 


CONTENTS,  » 

II.  LITERATURE:  — 

Page 

Shakspere,  Fielding,  and  Poetry 79 

Collins  and  J.  Warton 81 

Contemporary  Poets  82 

A  Ballad 83 

Ossian 84 

OssiAN 85 

Ossian 86 

OSSIAN 88 

Ossian 89 

OSSIAN 89 

Ossian 90 

Ossian 90 

Jeremy  Taylor 90 

Castle  of  Otranto  and  Rousseau 91 

David  Hume  and  Skepticism 92 

III.  NATURE:  — 

Early  Appreciation 93 

Alpine  Scenery 94 

Alpine  Scenery 95 

Alpine  Scenery 97 

Mountains  98 

Journal  in  the  Lakes 99 

Notes  on  the  Poems 127 

Notes  on  the  Prose 177 


INTRODUCTION. 


-•o»- 


I.    LIFE. 

Thomas  Gray  was  born  in  Cornhill,  London,  26 
December  17 16.  His  father  was  Philip  Gray,  and  his 
mother  Dorothy  Antrobus  Gray.  They  had  twelve  child- 
ren, of  whom  Thomas  was  the  fifth  ;  all  the  others  died 
in  infancy.  Mrs.  Gray  was  compelled  to  support  her  son 
through  school  and  college  by  her  own  exertions,  as 
Philip  Gray  —  who  was  not  only  brutal  but  probably 
crazy- — refused  to  do  anything  for  him.  About  1727 
Gray  went  to  Eton,  and  there  made  the  "  quadruple 
alliance  "  friendship  with  Horace  Walpole,  Richard  West, 
and  Thomas  Ashton.  In  1734  he  entered  Peterhouse, 
Cambridge,  and  like  so  many  other  eminent  men,  found 
the  curriculum  routine  unpalatable.  He  especially  hated 
mathematics.  He  made  few  acquaintances,  indulged  in 
no  sports,  and  was  probably  looked  at  askance  by  his 
fellow-students.  He  left  Cambridge  without  a  degree  in 
1738.  In  1739  he  was  invited  by  Horace  Walpole  to 
accompany  him  on  a  trip  over  the  continent  ;  they  went 
through  France  and  across  the  Alps  to  Italy.  Here  they 
quarreled  and  separated  in  April,  1741,  and  Gray  returned 
home  alone.  His  father  died,  6  November  1741,  and 
Gray  lived  at  Stoke  Poges  with  his  mother  and  her  two 
sisters.  The  death  of  his  brilliant  friend,  Richard  West, 
I  June  1742,  profoundly  affected  Gray  ;  although  he 
seldom  spoke  of  it,  he  never  could  allude  to  it  calmly  to 


xiy  INTRODUCTION. 

the  day  of  his  death.  It  was  probably  the  greatest  sor- 
row of  his  Ufe,  though  he  was  most  tenderly  attached  to 
his  mother.  In  1742  Gray  settled  down  at  Peterhouse, 
Cambridge,  and  nibbled  at  the  law.  He  took  his  LL.B. 
in  1743.  Greek  seems  to  have  been  his  favorite  study, 
and  for  six  years  he  gave  it  intense  application.  From 
this  time  until  his  death,  Cambridge  was  Gray's  home, 
although  he  changed  from  Peterhouse  to  Pembroke  in 
1756,  and  when  the  British  Museum  was  opened  in  1759, 
he  lived  at  London  for  two  years,  in  order  to  enjoy  the 
advantages  of  the  library  and  manuscripts.  Gray  had  no 
college  standing  at  Cambridge  ;  he  was  not  a  Fellow,  nor 
had  he  any  official  connection  with  the  place  until  1768, 
when  he  was  made  Professor  of  Modern  History  and 
Languages.  In  accordance  with  the  prevailing  custom, 
he  delivered  no  lectures  and  made  no  attempt  to  teach. 
Gray  lived  at  Cambridge  because  it  was  quiet  and  fairly 
cheap  ;  because  the  libraries  were  there,  and  the  atmos- 
phere was  intellectual ;  and  because  he  had  a  few  college 
friends,  though  college  society  in  general  he  despised. 

His  mother  died  11  March  1753,  and  was  buried  in 
the  church-yard  at  Stoke  Poges.  We  cannot  quote  too 
often  the  beautiful  inscription  Gray  placed  on  her  tomb  — 
the  "  mother  of  many  children,  one  of  whom  alone  had 
the  misfortune  to  survive  her."  Gray's  life  was  lonely. 
'  He  was  never  married,  and  apparently  never  thought  of 
marrying,  unless  we  magnify  his  slight  and  very  tame 
flirtation  with  Harriet  Speed,  the  heroine  of  the  Long 
Story, 

Gray's  intimate  friends  were   Horace  Walpole   (they 
patched  up  the  Italian  quarrel),  the  Rev.  William  Mason 
the  poet,  the   Rev.  Norton  NichoUs,  James   Brown  the 
^^  master  of  Pembroke,  Thomas  Wharton,  and  Charles  Vic- 

tor de  Bonstetten — a  young  Swiss  gentleman,  whom  Gray 


INTRODUCTION.  XX 

met  in  1769,  and  for  whom  he  had  a  strange,  almost  pas- 
sionate attachment.  Bonstetten  sat  at  his  feet,  and  eagerly 
drank  in  Gray's  words  of  wisdom  and  instruction. 

Gray  never  was  in  good  health,  and  in  the  spring  of 
177 1  had  a  dangerous  attack  of  gout  in  the  stomach. 
He  died  in  his  rooms  at  Pembroke,  30  July  177 1,  at  the 
age  of  fifty-four.  He  was  buried  at  Stoke  Poges  by  his 
mother's  side.  In  strange  accordance  with  his  dislike  of 
publicity,  there  is  no  name  or  inscription  on  his  grave, 
although  a  hideous  mausoleum,  erected  in  1799,  stands 
in  Stoke  Park,  close  by  the  church-yard. 

With  the  possible  exception  of  Milton,  Gray  was  the 
greatest  scholar  among  the  English  poets.  Perhaps  it 
would  be  better  to  say  that  Milton's  scholarship  was  the 
greatest,  and  Gray's  the  best.  His  knowledge  was  not 
of  the  general  information  kind ;  it  was  indeed  remark- 
ably broad,  but  at  the  same  time  extremely  accurate. 
He  w^as  an  accomplished  linguist,  a  good  zoologist 
and  botanist,  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  history 
of  literature,  and  a  careful  and  enthusiastic  student  of 
architecture.  He  studied  nearly  everything  except 
mathematics.  When  Greek  was,  comparatively  speak- 
ing, neglected,  he  worked  at  it  with  eagerness,  even  to 
the  most  minute  details ;  the  large  body  of  Greek  notes 
he  left  behind  him  ( Works,  IV)  attests  the  range  and 
accuracy  of  his  knowledge.  He  was  such  arecluse,  that 
it  was  difficult  for  even  Cambridge  students  to  catch  a 
glimpse  of  him  ;  he  did  not  dine  in  the  hall,  and  sel- 
dom appeared  anywhere  except  to  make  a  trip  to  the 
circulating  library.  After  he  became  famous,  and  was 
acknowledged  to  be  the  greatest  living  poet,  people  used 
to  watch  patiently  for  his  awkward  figure  to  appear. 
But  he  gave  them  no  more  chances  than  he  could  help, 
as  he  shrank  nervously  from   popularity.      In    1757   he 


xvi  INTRODUCTION. 

refused  the  offer  of  the  Laureateship,  being  too  familiar 
with  the  history  of  that  office.-^  \ 

In  religion  Gray  was  apparently  an  orthodox  Chris- 
tian, but  entirely  without  missionary  zeal.  He  disliked 
emotional  demonstration,  perhaps  because  his  own 
religious  sense  was  so  deep  and  true.  Atheism  he 
hated  and  despised. 

Gray's  character  had  its  faults,  most  of  them  trivial. 
He  was  proud,  haughty  in  a  feminine,  I  had  almost 
said  a  feline  way,  and  perhaps  too  contemptuous  toward 
superficiality.  He  was  not  agreeable  to  chance  acquaint- 
ances, and  in  differences  of  opinion  was  not  at  all 
conciliatory ;  but  he  had  a  keen  sense  of  humor,  and 
although  never  jovial,  was  often  sprightly  and  playful. 
His  intimate  friends  loved  him,  and  friends  and  enemies 
all  respected  him.  Although  he  lacked  energy,  his  intel- 
lectual and  moral  purposes  were  lofty  ;  he  looked  on  life 
with  serious  earnestness,  and  he  was  pure  in  heart.  It 
may  be  truly  said  that  he  was  a  good  man. 

The  portrait  facing  the  title-page  of  this  volume  is 
taken  from  the  large  print  in  Mason's  Memoirs  of  Gray 
(1775).  Of  this  picture  Horace  Walpole,  writing  to  Cole, 
25  April  1775  {Lette7's,  VI,  206),  said:  "The  print,  I 
agree  with  you,  though  like,  is  a  very  disagreeable  likeness, 
and  the  worst  likeness  of  him.  It  gives  the  primness  he 
had  when  under  constraint ;  and  there  is  a  blackness  in  the 
countenance  which  was  like  him  only  the  last  time  I 
ever  saw  him,  when  I  was  much  struck  with  it  ;  and, 
though  I  did  not  apprehend  him  in  danger,  it  left  an 
impression  on  me  that  was  uneasy,  and  almost  prophetic 
of  what  I  heard  but  too  soon  after  leaving  him.  Wilson 
drew  the  picture  under  much  such  impression,  and  I 
could  not  bear  it  in  my  room ;  Mr.  Mason  altered  it  a 

1  See  p.  64. 


INTR  OD  UC  TION,  XVn 

little,  but  still  it  is  not  well,  nor  gives  any  idea  of  the 
determined  virtues  of  his  heart.  It  just  serves  to  help 
the  reader  to  an  image  of  the  person,  whose  genius  and 
integrity  they  must  admire,  if  they  are  so  happy  as  to 
have  a  taste  for  either." 

II.     GRAY'S    STERILITY. 

Very  few  of  the  world's  great  poets  have  made  it 
easier  for  the  general  public  to  read  their  "  Complete 
Works  "  than  Gray.  The  temptation  to  scribble  and  to 
print  is  one  that  assails  not  only  the  would-be,  but  the 
genuine  poets.  This  accounts  for  the  bulky  volumes 
which  the  student  of  a  later  age  must  buy  and  con,  but 
which  the  rank  and  file  of  even  intelligent  readers  pass 
by  silently,  content  to  have  samples  in  place  of  the  entire 
stock.  Nor  does  the  student  always  wish  that  the  m.aster 
had  written  more.  We  wish  he  had  written  more  in  his 
best  vein,  but  the  chances  are  even  that  he  would  not 
have  written  in  his  best  vein.  There  are  many  of 
Wordsworth's  sonnets  which  the  world  has  willingly  let 
die  ;  their  titles  in  the  Tables  of  Contents  are  merely 
the  headstones  of  their  graves.  The  Excursio?t  —  let  it 
be  said  softly  and  with  a  timid  glance  over  the  shoulder 
■ —  is  long  enough.  With  a  man  like  Gray  —  there  are 
not  very  many  men  like  Gray — the  case  is  different. 
His  sterility  is  so  surprising  that  it  becomes  necessary  at 
the  outset  not  only  to  call  attention  to  it  —  the  price  of 
his  "Complete  Poetical  Works"  will  do  that  —  but  to 
attempt  to  explain  it.  This  can  be  done  without  resort- 
ing to  any  subtle  theories.  The  view  given  by  Matthew 
Arnold  in  his  famous  essay  ^  is  entirely  without  founda- 
tion in  fact.     It  is  true  that  there  is  a  curious  lack  of 

1  Ward's  English  Poets,  III,  302. 


\ 


( 


xviii  INTRODUCTION. 

harmony  between  Gray's  cold,  classical  style  and  the 
Romantic  subjects  he  treated  ;  this  no  doubt  often  made 
articulation  extremely  difficult.  But  Mr.  Arnold's  theory, 
that  his  scantiness  of  production  was  caused  by  his  living 
in  the  "  age  of  prose  and  reason  "  is  quite  wide  of  the 
mark.  The  reason  why  Gray  wrote  so  little  was  not 
because  he  was  chilled  by  the  public  taste  of  the  age  ; 
he  would  probably  have  written  no  more  had  he  lived  a 
hundred  years  before  or  since.  He  was  not  the  man  to 
be  depressed  by  an  unfavorable  environment  ;  for  his 
mind  was  ever  open  to  new  influences,  and  he  welcomed 
with  the  utmost  eagerness  all  genuine  signs  of  promise. 
His  correspondence  shows  how  closely  and  intelligently 
he  followed  the  course  of  contemporary  literature  ;  he 
had  something  to  say  about  every  important  new  book. 
The  causes  of  his  lack  of  production  are  simple  enough 
to  those  who  start  with  no  pre-conceived  theory,  and  who 
prefer  a  commonplace  explanation  built  on  facts  to  a 
fanciful  one  built  on  phrases.  Gray  was  a  scKblar,  1 
devoted  to  solitary  research,  and  severely  critical  ;  this ' 
kind  of  temperament  is  not  primarily  creative,  and  does 
not  toss  off  immortal  poems  every  few  weeks.  The  time 
that  Mason,  for  example,  spent  in  production.  Gray  spent 
in  acquisition,  and  when  he  did  produce,  the  critical 
fastidiousness  of  the  scholar  appeared  in  every  line.  AH 
his  verses  bear  evidence  of  the  most  painstaking  labor 
and  rigorous  self-criticism.^  Again,  during  his  whole  life 
he  was  handicapped  by  wretched  health,  which,  although 
never  souring  him,  made  his  temperament  melancholy, 
and  acted  as  a  constant  check  on  what  creative  activity 
he  really  possessed.  And  finally,,  he  abhorred  publicity 
and  popularity.  No  one  who  reads  his  correspondence 
can  doubt  this  fact.  He  hated  to  be  dragged  out  from 
his  scholarly  seclusion,  and  evidently  preferred  complete 


INTRODUCTION.  xix 

obscurity  to  any  noisy  public  reputation.  This  reserve 
was  never  affected  ;  it  was  uniformly  sincere,  like  every- 
thing else  in  Gray's  character.  His  reticence  was  indeed 
extraordinary,  keeping  him  not  only  from  writing,  but 
from  publishing  what  he  did  write.  He  wrote,  in  English 
and  Latin,  more  than  sixty  poems,  but  only  twelve 
appeared  in  print  during  his  lifetime  ;  and  his  prose  is  all 
posthumous.  Gray's  own  friends  would  have  had  no  diffi- 
culty in  explaining  his  scantiness  of  production.  Horace 
Walpole,  writing  to  George  Montagu,  3  Sept.  1748, 
says  :  "  I  agree  with  you  most  absolutely  in  your  opinion 
about  Gray  ;  he  is  the  worst  company  in  the  world.  From 
a  melancholy  turn,  from  living  reclusely,  and  from  a  little 
too  much  dignity,  he  never  converses  easily  ;  all  his  words 
are  measured  and  chosen,  and  formed  into  sentences  ; 
his  writings  are  admirable.;  he  himself  is  not  agreeable." 
Again,  referring  to  Gray's  slowness  in  composition, 
Walpole  writes  to  Montagu,  5  May  1761.  He  is  talking 
about  Gray's  proposed  History  of  Poetry,  and  he  says  : 
''  If  he  ri^s  Pegasus  at  his  usual  foot-pace,  [he]  will 
finish  the  first  page  two  years  hence."  In  the  compo- 
sition of  his  poems  as  well  as  in  his  studies.  Gray  was 
thorough  ;  he  disliked  all  short  cuts  to  knowledge. 
Observe  his  admirable  remark  on  such  things  :  "  Mr. 
Gray  always  .  considered,  that  the  Encyclopaedias  and 
universal  Dictionaries  of  various  kinds,  with  which  the 
world  now  abounds  so  much,  afforded  a  very  unfavour- 
able symptom  of  the  age  in  regard  to  its  literature  ;  as 
no  real  or  profound  learning  can  be  obtained  but  at 
the  fountain-head."  ^  The  adjective  that  perhaps  best 
expresses  Gray  is  fastidious.  He  was  as  severe  on  the 
children  of  his  own  brain  as  he  was  on  those  of  others  ; 
he  never  let  them  appear  in  public  until   he  was   sure 

1  Mathias,  Observations,  1815,  p.  50. 


INTR  OD  UC  TIOiV. 


everything  was  exactly  as  it  should  be.  Even  his 
greatest  poem  pleases  more  by  its  exquisite  finish  than 
by  its  depth  of  feelingi  These  three  reasons,  then,  his 
scholarly  temperament,  his  bad  health,  and  his  dignified 
reserve,  account  satisfactorily  for  his  lack  of  fertility.  If 
we  wish  to  know  why  so  deep  and  strong  a  nature  pro- 
duced so  little  poetry,  we  must  look  at  the  man,  and  not 
at  his  contemporaries. 

III.     CHIEF   INFLUENCES   THAT   AFFECTED    GRAY'S 

STYLE. 

Two  English  poets  exerted  a  powerful  impression 
upon  Gray — Dry  den  and  IMilton.  The  former  influ- 
enced Gray's  style  in  his  early/  Odes ;  in  his  later 
poems  Dryden's  influence  is  scarcely  discernible,  but 
Gray  never  ceased  to  admire  ^ryden's  verse,  freely 
acknowledging  how  much  he  had  gained  from  him,  and 
listening  impatiently  when  Dryden  was  censured.  Yet 
for  Dryden's  character  Gray  had  nothing  but  contempt.^ 

'  Spenser  was  a  favorite  of  Gray's,  as  he  has  been  with 
nearly  all  the  poets.  Gray  usually  read  Spenser  just 
before  composing;  but  it  was  Milton  whose  influence 
was  most  powerful  and  continuous.  About  1750  the 
Miltonic  school  of  poets  included  the  principal  English 
men  of  verse  —  Collins,  the  Wartons,  Mason  and 
others  ;  and  Gray  was  no  exception.^  The  abundance 
of  ^liltonic  words  and  phrases  in  Gray's  poems  is  every- 
where noticeable  ;   and  the  Elegy  was  simply  the  culmina- 

I  tion  of  a  class  of  literature  which  derived  its  inspiration 
directly  from  //  Pe?iseroso. 

1  See  p.  65. 

-  For  an  account  of  the  influence  of  Milton  on  eighteenth  cent- 
ury literature,  see  the  editor's  Beginningj  of  the  English  Romantic 
Movement,  chap.  v. 


JNTR  on  UC  TION,  xxi 

Gray's   style  was   also   greatly  influenced   by  his  pro-/ 
found    knowledge    of    the    classics ;    among    the    GreeW 
poefsf  PindaT'^erhaps  had   the   most  pronounced  eiifecA 
on  his  style.     The  polish,  finish,  and  chiseled  perfection 
of  Gray's  verse  was  doubtless  owing  in  no  small   degree 
to  his  study  and  admiration  of  Greek  ;  even  after  Gray  \ 
adopted    Romantic    themes    his    style    is    often    strictly  [ 
Classic.     Gray's  Latin  poems  are  very  little  read  now-  I 
a-5ays,  but    they  attest    his   knowledge  and    interest   in 
Roman  literature ;    and  they  called  out  words  of  praise 
from  that  famous  Latinist,  Dr.  Johnson. 

The  influence  of  French  and  Italian  poetry  —  in  both 
these  languages  he  was  a  good  scholar  —  affected  Gray 
strongly.  His  admiration  for  Racine  is  well  known  ;  - 
but  among  contemporary  French  authors  he  was  especi- 
ally influenced  by^Gresset.^  Gray  called  him  a  "great 
master,"  ^  and  quoted  some  of  his  verses  in  a  letter  tc 
Wharton.^  His  plays  seemed  to  have  perfectly  charmed 
Gray,  who  said,  "The  Mechaiit  is  the  best  comedy  I 
ever  read.'"*  Moreover,  according  to  Mason,  Gresset  is 
responsible  for  one  of  Gray's  poems  ;  for  the  Epitre  a 
ma  Soziir  inspired  him  to  write  his  Ode  on  the  Pleasure 
Arising  from  Vicissitude.^  It  is  interesting,  in  view  of 
the  great  contrast  between  the  men,  to  recall  the  fact 
that  when  in  Paris  in  1739,  Gray  dined  with  the  Abbe' 
Prevost,  the  author  of  that  masterpiece  of  passion, 
Mano7i  Lescmii.  Of  the  French  people  and  French 
habits  of  thought  Gray  had  no  very  high  opinion, 
although  his  dislike  of  Voltaire  and  Rousseau  was 
doubtless  largely  due  to  religious  prejudice. 

1  Works,  II,  167,  232. 

2  Jean  Baptiste  Louis  Gresset  {1709-1 777). 

3  Works,  II,  182.  4  Works,  II,  186. 
^  See  notes  on  that  poem. 


%• 


xxii  INTR  ODUC  TION. 

7 

The  Romantic  element  in  Ariosto  must  have  influ- 
enced Gray ;  and  from  Tasso  and  Dante  he  made 
translations.-^  In  his  own  poetry  Gray  curiously  unites 
the  mixture  of  the  Classic  and  Romantic  elements  so 
noticeable  in  Tasso.  Gray  had  a  profound  admiration 
for  -Dante,  and  the  chance  quotation  of  a  passage  from 
the  Italian  poet  was  the  beginning  of  his  friendship  with 
Norton  NichoUs.^  Nicholls  said  that  Gray  looked  up  to 
the  best  Italian  poets  "  as  his  great  progenitors,  and  to 
Dante  as  the  father  of  all."  ^ 

IV.     GRAY'S    PROGRESS    TOWARD    ROMANTICISM. 

The   most    significant    thing   in    the    study  of   Gray's 
poetry  is  his  steady  progress  in  the  Romantic  direction. V 
Beginning    as   a   classicist    and    disciple   of    Dryden,   he 
ended  in  thorough-going  Romanticism.^    His  early  poems 
contain    nothing    ^mantic ;    his    ^/^^has    something 
of   the    Romaiitic    mood,  \  but   show^s  many  conventional 
touj^hes  ;    in   the    Pindafii^    Odes   the    Romantic   feeling** 
asserts  itself  boldly  ;  and  he  ends  in  enthusiastic  study  of  / 
Norse  and  Celtic  poetry  and  mythology.      Such  a  steady' 
growth  in  the  mind  of  the  greatest  poet  of  the  time  shows 
not    only  what    he    learned   from   the   age,  but  what  he 
taught  it.      Gray  is  a  much  more  important  factor  in  the. 
Romantic  movement  than   seems   to  be   commonly  sup- 
posed.    This  will  appear  from  a  brief  examination  of  his 
poetry. 

While  at  Florence  in  the  summer  of  1740,  he  began  to 

1  Works,  I,  148,  157. 

2  Nicholls's  Refniniscences,  p.  44. 

'  He  never  despised  Dryden,  however,  though  he  went  far  beyond 
him.  2  Oct.  1765,  he  wrote  to  Beattie,  "Remember  Dryden,  and  be 
blind  to  all  his  faults."      Works,  III,  221. 


INTRODUCTION.  Xxiii 

write  an  epic  poem  in  Latin,  Dc  Frmcipiis  Cogitandi.\ 
Only  two  fragments  were  written/  but  tliey  made  a  piece 
of  considerable  length.  This  was  an  attempt  to  put  into 
poetic  form  the  philosophy  of  Locke.  It  shows  how  little 
he  at  that  time  understood  his  own  future.  The  Gray  of 
1760  could  no  more  have  done  a  thing  of  this  sort,  than 
he  could  have  written  the  Essay  ofi  Alan.  In  these  early 
years  he  was  completely  a  Classicist.  In  1748,  when  he 
was  largely  under  Dryden's  influence,  he  began  a  didactic 
poem  in  the  heroic  couplet,  On  the  Alliance  of  Education 
and  Government.  It  is  significant  that  he  never  finished 
either  of  these  poems.  Mathias  says  :  "  When  Mr. 
Nicholls  once  asked  Mr.  Gray,  why  he  never  finished  that 
incomparable  Fragment  on  '  The  Alliance  between  good 
Government  and  good  Education,  in  order  to  produce 
the  happiness  of  mankind,'  he  said,  he  could  not ;  and  then 
explained  himself  in  words  of  this  kind,  or  to  this  effect  : 
'  I  have  been  used  to  write  chiefly  lyrick  poetry,  in  which, 
the  poems  being  short,  I  have  accustomed  myself  to 
polish  every  part  of  them  with  care  ;  and  as  this  has 
become  a  habit,  1  can  scarcely  write  in  any  other  manner  : 
the  labour  of  this  in  a  long  poem  would  hardly  be  toler- 
able.' "  ^  Gray  must  have  perceived  early  in  this  task 
that  the  game  was  not  worth  the  candle. 

In  1742  Gray  wrote  three  Odes  :  On  the  Spring,  On  a 
Distant  Prospect  of  Eton  College,  and  To  Adversity.  These 
well-known  pieces  contain  little  intimation  of  his  later 
work.  They  have  nothing  of  the  spirit  of  Romanticism, 
and  might  have  been  written  by  any  Augustan  of  suf- 
ficient talent.  The  moralizingiswholly  conventional, 
and  the  abundance  of  personified  abstractions  was  in  the 

1  The  second  in  1742. 

2  Observations,  181 5,  p.  52.  This  passage  in  itself  goes  a  long 
way  toward  explaining  Gray's  sterility. 


xxiv  INTRODUCTION. 

}  height  of  fashion.^  The  poems  thus  far  mentioned  rep- 
resent Gray's  first  period.  He  was  a  disciple  of  Dryden, 
and  a  great  admirer  of  Pope,  for  writing  to  Walpole  in 
1746,  he  calls  Pope  "the  finest  writer,  one  of  them,  we 
ever  had."  ^ 

Gray's  second  jigriodjs  represented  by  the  Elegy,  which 
he  probably  began  in  1742  and  finished  in  June  1750.^ 
He  was  in  no  haste  to  print  it ;  the  manuscript  circulated 
among  his  friends,  and  was  first  printed  anonymously,  with 
a  preface  by  Horace  Walpole,  16  February  1751.  How 
long  Gray  meant  to  keep  the  Elegy  from  the  public  is 
uncertain  ;  circumstances  compelled  its  publication.  On 
10  February  175 1,  the  editor  of  the  Magazifie  of  Maga- 
zines requested  permission  to  print  it.  This  alarmed 
Gray  ;  he  flatly  refused  the  editor's  request,  and  wrote 
instantly  to  Walpole,  asking  him  to  get  Dodsley  to  print 
it  as  soon  as  possible.* 
^  The  Ele^y  is  not  a  Romantic  poem  ;  its  moralizing  is 
conventional,  and  pleased  eighteenth  century  readers  for 
■\  that  very  reason.  Scores  of  poems  were  written  at  that 
I  time  in  which  the  strength  of  thought  was  neither  above 

1  For  remarks  on  the  fashion  of  Abstractions,  see  Phelps's 
Beginnifigs  of  the  English  Ro7nantic  Movement,  especially  p.  88. 
Gray  did  not  always  admire  these  personifications,  when  others  used 
them.  In  a  letter  to  Mason,  19  December  1756  {Works,  II,  304), 
in  criticising  Caractactis,  he  says,  *'  I  had  rather  some  of  these  per- 
sonages, '  Resignation,  Peace,  Revenge,  Slaughter,  Ambition,'  were 
stript  of  their  allegorical  garb.  A  little  simplicity  here  in  the  expres- 
sion would  better  prepare  the  high  and  fantastic  strain." 

2  Works,  II,  130. 

3  Gray's  interesting  letter  to  Walpole  about  the  Elegy,  12  June 
1750,  maybe  found  on  p.  70.  He  says:  "You  will,  I  hope,  look 
upon  it  in  the  light  of  a  thing  with  an  end  to  it  ;  a  merit  that  most 
of  my  writings  have  wanted."  He  evidently  felt  the  fragmentary 
nature  of  his  previous  work. 

^  This  letter  may  be  found  on  p.  71. 


INTRO  D  UC  TIOiV.  xxv 

nor  below  that  of  the  E/egy,  and  these  poems  have  nearly 
all  perished.  What  has  kept  Gray's  contribution  to  the 
Churchyard  school  alive  and  popular  through  all  changes 
in  taste,  is  its  absolute  perfection  of  language.  There 
are  few  poems  in  English  literature  that  express  the 
sentiment  of  the  author  with  such  felicity  and  beauty. 
This  insures  its  immortality ;  and  it  is  this  fact  that 
deservedly  gives  it  the  first  place  in  Gray's  literary  pro- 
ductions. 

But  although  the  Elegy  is  not  strictly  Romantic,  it  is 
different  from  Gray's  earlier  work.  It  is'  Romantic  in  its 
Imood^  and  stands  as  a  transition  between  his  period  of 
/Classicism  and  his  more  highly  imaginative  poetry.  It 
was  the  culmination  of  the  //  Fenseroso  school,  and  that 
school  was  in  several  w^ays  intimately  connected  with  the 
growth  of  the  Romantic  movement.  There  is  one  highly 
significant  fact  about  the  composition  of  the  Elegy^  which 
shows  with  perfect  distinctness  that  its  author  was  pass- 
ing through  a  period  of  transition.  One  of  its  most 
famous  stanzas  Gray  originally  wrote  as  follows  :  — 

"  Some  Village  Cato       with  dauntless  Breast 
The  little  Tyrant  of  his  Fields  withstood  ; 
Some  mute  inglorious  Tully  here  may  rest ; 
Some  Caesar,  guiltless  of  his  Country's  Blood." 

The  fact  that  Gray  should  originally  have  put  down  the 
Latin  names,  and  afterwards  inserted  in  their  place  the 
three  names  Hampden,  Milton,  Cromwell  —  taken  from 
comparatively  recent  English  history — is  something  cer- 
tainly worth  attention.  It  mark^^  the  transition  from 
Classicism  to  Nationalism.  In  this  stanza  he  shook  off 
the  shackles  of  pseudo-classicism  ;  he  made  up  his  mind 
that  English  historical  examples  were  equal  in  dignity  to 
those   taken   from   Latin   literature.     It  was  a  long  step 


\ 


xxvi  INTR  on  UC  TION. 

forward,  and  although  perhaps  a  small  thing  in  itself,  is 
an  index  to  a  profound  change  going  on  in  Gray's  mind.-^ 
r^  Gray's  next  work  shows  him  well  on  the  way  toward 
^[.Jlomanticism.  In  1754  he  wrote  The  Progress  of  Poesy, 
and  in  the  same  year  began  The  Bard,  which  he  finished 
in  1757.  Both  these  Pindaric  Odes  were  first  printed  in 
1757,  on  Horace  Walpole's  press  at  Strawberry  Hill — the 
first  and  the  best  things  ever  published  there.  These  two 
odes,  especially  the  latter,  are  the  most  imaginative  poetry 
Gray  ever  produced,  and  were  distinctly  in  advance  of 
the  age.  They  were  above  the  popular  conception  of 
poetry,  and  their  obscurity  was  increased  by  their  allusive- 
ness.  The  public  did  not  take  to  them  kindly;  many 
people  regarded  them  as  we  see  Browning  and  Wagner 
regarded  to-day.  Their  obscurity  was  ridiculed,  and  they 
were  freely  parodied.^     Gray  was  a  little  hurt  by  all  this, 

1  This  point  is  fully  and  suggestively  treated  in  the  Sattcrday 
Review  for  19  June  1875.  ^^''  William  Fraser,  in  his  Hie  et  Ubique, 
1893,  p.  268,  says  that  Gray  wrote  one  stanza  beginning  as  follows: 

"  Some  village  Lais,  with  all  conquering  charms." 

If  this  be  true,  the  composition  and  final  blotting  of  such  a  stanza  are 
also  significant  of  the  transition.  With  regard  to  this  point,  we  find 
in  The  Bibliogi-apher,  V,  61  (1884)  E.  Solly  saying  that  so  far  as  he 
can  find  out,  this  stanza  was  first  published  in  "  Willis's  Current 
Notes,  July,  1854"  with  the  note  that  it  occurred  in  some  MSS.  of 
Gray.  Solly  (who  has  obviously  hunted  high  and  low  :  cf.  his 
observations  in  Notes  a?id  Queries,  5th  Series,  V,  398,  summing  up  a 
discussion  which  resulted  from  Dr.  Doran's  editorial  publication  of 
this  stanza  as  "in  the  ist  ed."  of  Elegy  in  Al  &=  Q.  5th  Ser.,  Ill,  100) 
refuses  to  accept  the  stanza  as  genuine.     The  full  stanza  is  as  follows : 

"  Some  rural  Lais,  with  all-conquering  charms, 
Perhaps  now  moulders  in  this  grassy  bourne  1 
Some  Helen,  vain  to  set  the  fields  in  arms, 
Some  Emma  dead,  of  gentle  love  forlorn." 

2  See  pages  87,  89. 


INTRODUCTION.  xxvii 

but  he  had  foreseen  their  probable  reception.  He  had 
written  to  Walpole,  "  I  don't  know  but  1  may  send  him 
[Dodsley]  very  soon  ...  an  ode  to  his  own  tooth,  a  high 
Pindaric  upon  stilts,  which  one  must  be  a  better  scholar 
than  he  is  to  understand  a  line  of,  and  the  very  best 
scholars   will    understand  but   a   little   matter   here    and 

1     there."  1 

I    X    In  the  Pindaric  Odes,  Gray  ceased  to  follow  the  age  ; 
^  he  struck  out  ahead  of  it,  and  helped  to  mould  its  literary 

i    taste.     From  this  time  people  began  to  regard  him  as  a 
Romanticist,  and   to   look  for  wild  and  extravagant  pro- 

;    ductions    from    his    pen.     When    the    Castle    of  Ot7'aiito 

\  appeared  in  1764,  Gray  was  by  many  believed  to  be  the 
author.  The  Odes  became  much  more  popular  after 
Gray's  death  —  a  sign  of  growth  in  public  taste.  This 
made  Dr.  Johnson  angry,  and  had  much  to  do  with  his 
satirical  treatment  of  the  Odes  in  his  wretched  Life  of 
Gray.  He  did  not  like  to  think  that  Gray  had  really 
taught  the  people  anything,  and  so  he  declared  that  the 
admiration  for  Gray  was  all  hypocrisy,  just  as  many 
honest  people  to-day  make  fun  of  those  who  admire 
Wagner's  music.  Johnson  said  that  in  Gray's  Odes  "many 
were  content  to  be  shewn  beauties  which  they  could  not 
see  "  ;  and  the  Doctor  was  thinking  of  the  Odes  when  the 
following  interesting  conversation  with  Boswell  took  place: 
"  He  attacked  Gray,  calling  him  '  a  dull  fellow.'  Boswell. 
'  I  understand  he  was  reserved,  and  might  appear  dull  in 
company;  but  surely  he  was  not  dull  in  poetry.'  Johnson. 
'  Sir,  he  was  dull  in  company,  dull  in  his  closet,  dull 
everywhere.  He  was  dull  in  a  new  w^ay,  and  that  made 
many  people  think  him  great.  He  was  a  mechanical 
poet.'     He    then    repeated   some   ludicrous  lines,   which 

.     1  Works,  II,  218. 


\ 


xxviii  INTRODUCTION. 

have  escaped  my  memory,  and  said,  '  Is  not  that  great, 
Uke  his  OdesV^ 

We  now  enter  upon  the  third  and  last  period  of  Gray's 
literary  production.  In  1755  Paul  Henri  Mallet's  Intro- 
ductioji  a  V Histoire  de  Daimemarc  appeared.  This  had 
a  powerful  effect  on  Gray,  and  aroused  his  interest  in 
Northern  mythology,  which  he  studied  with  the  utmost 
enthusiasm.  In  1761,  Gray  wrote  The  Fatal  Sisters,  and 
The  Descent  of  Odin.  Here  we  find  him  writing  on  strictly 
Romantic  themes.  Evan  Evans's  book  on  Welsh  poetry- 
(1764)  containing  specimens  from  ancient  Welsh  bards, 
inspired  Gray  again,  and  he  wrote  The  Trin??iphs  of  07ve?i, 
together  with  two  other  shorter  pieces. 

The  Fatal  Sisters,  Odi?i,  and  Oiven  were  published  in 
1768,  in  the  edition  of  his  writings  revised  by  himself. 
In  1760,  when  the  Ossi^ic  Fragments  appeared.  Gray 
was  wonderfully  aroused.  His  friends  knew  he  would 
be  excited,  for  Walpole,  writing  to  Dalrymple,  4  April 
1760,  said  :  "You  originally  pointed  him  out  as  a  likely 
person  to  be  charmed  with  the  old  Irish  poetry  you  sent 
me."  Gray's  letters  on  Ossian  may  be  found  among  the 
selections  from  his  prose  in  this  book;  also  his  interest- 
ing remark  on  the  ballad  Child  Maurice,  which  he  greatly 
enjoyed. 

As  he  advanced  in  life,  Gray's  ideas  of  poetry  grew 
free  in  theory  as  well  as  in  practice.  His  Observations 
oil  English  Metre,  written  probably  in  1760-61,  and  pub- 
lished in  18 14,  contains  much  interesting  matter.  Gray 
had  planned  to  write  a  History  of   English  Poetry,  but 

1  Boswell's  JoliJison,  ed.  Hill,  II,  374. 

2  Some  Specimens  of  the  Poetry  of  the  Antient  Welsh  Bards.  Trans- 
lated into  English,  with  Explattatory  Notes  on  the  Historical  Passages, 
and  a  short  account  of  Men  and  Places  mentioned  by  the  Bards,  in 
order  to  give  the  Cnrioiis  some  Idea  of  the  Taste  and  Sentifnents  of  our 
Ancestors,  and  their  mangier  of  Writing, 


INTR  OD  UC  TION.  xxix 

when  he  heard  that  Thomas  Warton  was  engaged  in 
that  work,  he  gave  up  the  idea,  and  handed  over  his 
general  scheme  to  Warton.  If  Gray  had  completed 
a  history  of  this  kind,  it  would  certainly  have  been  more 
accurate  than  Warton's,  and  would  probably  have  done 
as  much  service  to  Romanticism.  A  few  words  may  be 
quoted  from  the  Observatio?is^  to  show  how  far  Gray  had 
advanced  in  his  ideas  since  1740.  Speaking  of  Milton, 
he  says  :  "  The  more  we  attend  to  the  composition  of 
Milton's  harmony,  the  more  we  shall  be  sensible  how  he 
loved  to  vary  his  pauses,  his  measures  and  his  feet, 
which  gives  that  enchanting  air  of  freedom  and  wildness 
to  his  versification,  unconfined  by  any  rules  but  those 
which  his  own  feeling  and  the  nature  of  his  subject 
demands."  -^ 

V.     GRAY'S    PROSE. 

"  I  do  not  pretend  to  write  prose, "  Gray  once 
remarked  ;  ^  but  nevertheless  he  wrote  it  admirably. 
Although  Gray  often  imitated  Milton  in  his  poetry,  he 
never  attempted  to  do  so  in  his  prose,  which  Milton  wrote, 
to  use  his  own  words,  with  his  left  hand.  The  eighteenth 
century  was  the  golden  age  of  letter  writing ;  cheap 
postage  had  not  then  done  its  fatal  work  on  epistolary 
style.  In  the  letters  of  Gray  we  see  perhaps  the  best 
representatives  of  the  best  period  ;  he  does  not  suffer 
even  in  comparison  with  the  most  famous  of  all  English 
letter-writers,  Horace  Walpole.  Walpole  is  more  bril- 
liant, but  he  is  also  more  artificial ;  and  he  too  evidently 
was  writing  for  the  benefit  of  posterity.  Gray's  style  has 
nearly  all  the  charm  of  Walpole's,  and  it  is  simplicity 
itself.     One   would   imagine   that   his   reserved  tempera- 

1  Works,  I,  332  ^  See  p.  77. 


XXX  INTRODUCTION. 

ment  might  make  his  letters  cold,  stiff,  formal,  and 
therefore  profitless  reading ;  on  the  contrary,  they  exhibit 
the  perfection  of  ease  and  grace.  Walpole  said,  "  Gray 
never  wrote  anything  easily  but  things  of  humour. 
Humour  was  his  natural  and  original  turn."  ^  To  those 
who  know  Gray  only  through  the  Elegy^  this  remark 
seems  scarcely  true ;  but  it  is  eminently  true  of  Gray 
when  writing  to  his  friends.  His  familiar  ways  with 
Mason,  whom  he  called  "  Skroddles,"  his  playful  tone 
with  NichoUs,  and  his  mild  satires  on  literary  ignorance 
and  political  selfishness,  all  tend  to  prove  the  truth  of 
Walpole's  statement.  Nor  can  any  one  read  Gray's 
letters  without  admiring  the  man  ;  he  is  so  sensible  and 
so  genuine.  His  own  troubles  are  mentioned  with 
reserve,  as  is  fitting;  and  his  "sympathy  for  the  sorrows 
of  others  is  as  full  of  depth  as  it  is  free  from  gush.  His 
remarks  on  men  of  letters  and  on  current  events  are 
sprightly  and  often  keen  ;  but  above  all,  his  prose 
epistles  are  interesting  and  valuable  for  the  evidence 
they  show  of  unfeigned  and  discriminating  appreciation 
of  nature.  In  this  respect,  they  are  deeply  interesting 
to  the  student  of  Romanticism.  He  was  one  of  the  first 
men  in  Europe  who  had  any  real  appreciation  of  wild 
and  romantic  scenery.  It  has  now  become  so  fashionable 
to  be  fond  of  mountains,  and  lakes,  and  picturesque 
landscapes,  that  it  seems  difficult  to  believe  that  all  this 
is  a  modern  taste.  To-day  the  average  summer  traveler 
speaks  enthusiastically  of  precipices,  mountain  cascades 
and  shaded  glens,  and  even  to  some  extent  interprets 
them  by  the  imagination ;  but  the  average  eighteenth 
century  sojourner  neither  could  nor  would  do  anything 
of  the  sort.  This  appreciation  of  the  picturesque  in 
external  nature   has   a   close  kinship  with  the  Romantic 

1  Letters,  VI,  206. 


INTRODUCTION.  XXXi 

movement  in  literature  ;  for  the  same  emotions  are  at 
the  foundation  of  both. 

The  Classicists  had  no  more  love  for  wild  nature  than 
they  had  for  Gothic  architecture  or  Romantic  poetry. 
Let  us  take  Addison  as  a  conspicuous  example.  "  In 
one  of  his  letters,  dated  December,  1701,  he  wrote  that 
he  had  reached  Geneva  after  'a  very  troublesome  journey 
over  the  Alps.  My  head  is  still  giddy  with  mountains 
and  precipices  ;  and  you  can't  imagine  how  much  I  am 
pleased  with  the  sight  of  a  plain  ! '  This  little  phrase  is 
a  good  illustration  of  the  contempt  for  mountains,  of  the 
way  they  were  regarded  as  wild,  barbaric,  useless  excres- 
cences. .  .  .  The  love  of  mountains  is  something  really 
of  modern,  very  modern,  growth,  the  first  traces  of  which 
we  shall  come  across  towards  the  middle  of  the  last 
century.  Before  that  time  we  find  mountains  spoken  of 
in  terms  of  the  severest  reprobation."^ 

Mountains  and  wild  scenery  were  considered  as 
objects  not  of  beauty  or  grandeur,  but  of  horror.  But 
in  Gray's  letters  we  hear  the  modern  tone.  In  this 
respect  he  was  even  more  in  advance  of  his  contem- 
poraries than  in  his  Romantic  poetry.  From  first  to 
last  he  was  always  a  lover  of  wild  nature ;  and,  as 
this  taste  was  so  unfashionable,  we  may  be  sure  of  his 
sincerity.  Toward  the  close  of  his  life,  this  feeling  in 
Gray  becomes  more  and  more  noticeable.  His  Journal 
in  the  Lakes'^  is  a  marvel  when  we  consider  its  date,  for 
it  is  written  in  the  true  spirit  of  Wordsworth.  But  his 
early  letters  and  journals  show  that  he  knew  how  to 
appreciate  romantic  scenery.  Take  two  extracts  from 
\\\'s,  Journal  in  Frajice  {y'j-^i^^.     These  words  are  interest- 

^  T.    S.    Perry's    English    Literature   in    the   Eighteenth    Century, 
p.  145. 

2  See  p.  99. 


xxxii  INTR  OD  UC  TION. 

ing  simply  as  showing  what  attracted  Gray's  attention  : 
'^  Beautiful  way,  commonly  on  the  side  of  a  hill,  cover'd 
with  woods,  the  river  Marne  winding  in  the  vale  below, 
and  Coteaux,  cover'd  with  vines,  riseing  gently  on  the 
other  side ;  fine  prospect  of  the  town  of  Joinville,  with 
the  castle  on  the  top  of  the  mountain,  overlooking  it.  .  .  . 
Ruins  of  an  old  castle  on  the  brow  of  a  mountain,  whose 
sides  are  cover'd  with  woods."  ^  Again,  describing  the 
journey  to  Geneva:  "The  road  runs  over  a  Mountain, 
which  gives  you  the  first  tast  of  the  Alps,  in  it's  magnifi- 
cent rudeness,  and  steep  precipices  ;  set  out  from 
Echelles  on  horseback,  to  see  the  Grand  Chartreuse,  the 
way  to  it  up  a  vast  mountain,  in  many  plkces  the  road 
not  2  yards  broad ;  on  one  side  the  rock  hanging  over 
you,  &  on  the  other  side  a  monstrous  precipice.  In  the 
bottom  runs  a  torrent  .  .  .  that  works  its  way  among 
the  rocks  with  a  mighty  noise,  and  frequent  Falls.  You 
here  meet  with  all  the  beauties  so  savage  and  horrid  a 
place  can  present  you  with ;  Rocks  of  various  and 
uncouth  figures,  cascades  pouring  down  from  an  immense 
height  out  of  hanging  Groves  of  Pine-Trees,  &  the 
solemn  Sound  of  the  Stream,  that  roars  below,  all  concur 
to  form  one  of  the  most  poetical  scenes  imaginable."^ 

All  this  is  remarkable  language  for  the  year  1739. 
Probably  very  few  private  journals  of  the  eighteenth 
century  can  show  anything  similar  to  it ;  for  Gray's  feel- 
ings were,  at  that  time,  almost  exclusively  his  own.  His_ 
letters,  both  at  that  time,  and  later,  on  Alpine  scenery, 
may  be  read  in  part  in  this  edition.  All  his  most  impor- 
tant remarks  on  nature  have  been  included. 

By  far  the  most  significant  of  them  is  the  Journal  in  the 
Lakes ^  written  in  1769,  and  published  in  1775.  This  docu- 
ment is  of  great  value,  as  throwj^g  light  on  the  purely 

'^  Works,  I,  240.  '^Works,  I,  244. 


INTRODUCTION.  xxxiii 

imaginative  side  of  Gray's  nature.  He  took  this  Lake  trip 
alone,  and  wrote  the  Journal  simply  to  amuse  his  friend, 
Dr.  Wharton.  Here  we  have  a  very  different  view  of 
nature  from  that  given  by  Dyer,  Thomson  and  even  by 
the  Wartons.  This  remarkable  Journal  is  written  in  the 
true  Wordsworthian  spirit.  Gray  not  only  observes  but 
spiritually  interprets  nature.  The  Journal  in  the  Lakes  is 
one  of  the  most  significant  pieces  of  eighteenth  century 
prose. 

Mitford  said :  "  No  man  was  a  greater  admirer  of 
nature  than  Mr.  Gray,  nor  admired  it  with  better  taste." 
Perhaps  Walpole  had  partly  in  mind  Gray's  superior 
appreciation  of  Alpine  scenery  when  he  wrote,  in  1775  : 
"  We  rode  over  the  Alps  in  the  same  chaise,  but  Pegasus 
drew  on  his  side,  and  a  cart-horse  on  mine."-^  There  is 
something  noble  and  truly  beautiful  in  the  way  in  which 
Walpole  always  insisted  on  his  own  inferiority  to  Gray. 
His  attitude  in  this  was  never  cringing  ;  it  was  a  pure 
tribute  of  admiration,  and  that,  too,  from  a  sensitive  man 
who  had  been  repeatedly  snubbed  by  the  very  object  of 
his  praise. 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  the  strange  and  strong  con- 
trast between  the  shy,  reserved  temperament  of  Gray, 
and  the  pronounced  radicalism  of  his  literary  tastes. 
Had  he  been  a  demonstrative  and  gushing  person  like 
Mason,  his  utterances  about  mountains  and  Ossianic 
poetry  would  not  seem  so  singular  ;  but  that  this  secluded 
scholar,  who  spent  most  of  his  hours  over  his  books  in 
Cambridge  and  the  manuscripts  in  the  British  Museum, 
and  who  was  always  slow  to  speak,  should  have  quietly 
cultivated  tastes  so  distinctly  Romantic  —  this  is  a  note- 
worthy fact.  It  seems  to  show  that  the  one-riian  power 
counts    for    something    in   literary   developments.     Gray 

1  Letter  to  Cole,  10  December  1775. 


xxxiv  INTRODUCTION. 

influenced  the  age  more  than  the  age  influenced  him ;  he 
led  rather  than  followed.  In  addition  to  all  the  various 
forces  silently  working  in  the  Romantic  movement,  we 
must  add  the  direct  influence  of  the  courage  and  genius 
of  Gray. 

VI.     CHRONOLOGICAL   TABLE. 

1 716.  Birth,  26  December,  Cornhill,  London. 

1734.  Enters  Peterhouse,  Cambridge. 

1738.  Leaves  Cambridge. 

1739.  Travels  on  the  Continent  v/ith  Horace  Walpole. 
1 741.  Returns  home,  i  September. 

1 74 1.  Death  of  Gray's  father,  6  November. 

1742.  Death  of  Richard  West,  i  June. 

1742.     Writes  Ode  on  the  Sp?'mg,  Eton  Ode,  Hymn  to  Adver- 
sity, Sojinet,  and  (probably)  begins  the  Elegy. 

1742.  Settles  down  at  Peterhouse,  Cambridge. 

1743.  Takes  the  degree  of  LL.B  at  Cambridge. 

1747.  Writes  Ode  on  the  Death  of  a  FavouiHte  Cat. 

1748.  Writes  the  Alliance  of  Education  and  Government. 

1750.  Completes  the  Elegy,  and  writes  A  Long  Story. 

1 75 1.  Elegy  published. 

1753.     Publication  of  Six  Poems. 

1753.  Death  of  Gray's  mother,  11  March. 

1754.  Writes  Progress  of  Poesy,  and  begins  the  Bard. 

1756.  Removes  from  Peterhouse  to  Pembroke  Hall. 

1757.  Publication  of  Pindai'ic  Odes. 
1 761.  Writes  the  Norse  Poems. 
1764.  Writes  the  Welsh  Poems. 

1768.     Standard  edition  of  his  Poems  published  in    London 
and  Glasgow. 

1768.  Made  Professor  of  Modern  History  and  Languages  at 

Cambridge. 

1 769.  Writes  Ode  for  Music,  which  is  published  the  same  year. 
1 769.     Writes  fournal  in  the  Lakes. 

1 771.     Death  of  Gray,  30  July. 


INTRODUCTION.  xxxv 


VII.     BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

[The  Bibliography  up  to  1771  is  made  as  complete  as  possible;  after  that 
date,  only  the  more  important  editions  are  included.] 

An  Ode  on  a  Distant  Prospect  of  Eton  College.  (Anonymous.) 
London,  1747.     Folio. 

Odes  on  Eton,  on  the  Spring,  and  on  the  Death  of  a  Favourite 
Cat.  (Anonymous.)  In  Dodsley's  Collection  of  Poems. 
Vol.  11.     London,  1748. 

An  Elegy  Wrote  in  a  Country  Church  Yard.  London,  1751. 
(Anonymous.) 

This  has  an  Advertisement  by  H.  Walpole ;  the  poem  went  through 
four  editions  in  two  months,  and  by  1759  had  gone  through  eleven 
regular  editions. 

Designs  by  Mr.  R.  Bentley,  for  Six  Poems  by  Mr.  T.  Gray. 
(Vignette.)     London,  1753.     Folio. 

This  beautiful  volume  contains  six  full-page  prints,  and  a  considerable 
number  of  smaller  ones  in  the  shape  of  front  and  tail  pieces,  and  initial 
letters.  The  poems  are  set  up  in  very  large  type,  and  are  printed  on 
only  one  side  of  the  leaves.  At  the  end  of  the  volume  are  brief  explana- 
tions of  the  prints.  The  poems  included  are  S/ring,  Cat,  Eton,  Long 
Story,  Adversity,  Elegy. 

Odes  by  Mr.  Gray.    4>12NANTA  STNETOISI  _  Pindar,  Olymp, 

II.     (Vignette.)     Printed  at  Strawberry-Hill,  For  R.  and  J. 

Dodsley  in  Pall-Mall.      1757. 

This  is  a  thin  quarto,  and  the  first  edition  of  the  two  famous 
Pindaric  Odes,  which  are  here  called  simply  Ode  I  and  Ode  II. 

Designs  by  Mr.  R.  Bentley,  for  Six  Poems  by  Mr.  T.  Gray. 
London,  1765.     Folio. 

Poems  by  Mr.  Gray.     London,  1768. 

This  is  the  standard  edition  of  Gray's  poems,  a  small  volume  of  120 
pages.  It  contains  ten  pieces,  as  follows :  Spring,  Cat,  Eton,  Adversity^ 
Progress  of  Poesy,  Bard,  Fatal  Sisters,  Odin,  Owen,  Elegy. 

Poems  by  Mr.  Gray.     A  New  Edition.      London,  1768. 

This  is  a  reprint  of  the  preceding,  with  the  same  paging ;  but  the  type 
is  smaller. 


XXXVi  INTRODUCTION, 

Poems  by  Mr.  Gray.     Glasgow,  1768.     Quarto. 

This  is  a  beautiful  volume,  in  large  type,  and  was  printed  by  the 
Foulis  Brothers  from  Gray's  own  MS.  He  gave  them  permission  to 
print,  to  get  what  profit  they  could,  and  he  himself  sent  them  the  MS., 
which  was  the  same  as  that  sent  to  Dodsley  at  the  same  time. 

Poems  by  Mr.  Gray.     Dublin,  1768. 

This  is  a  small  volume,  but  contains,  besides  the  ten  poems  in  the 
three  preceding  editions,  the  Long  Story,  two  Latin  translations  of  the 
Elegy  —  Carmen  Elegiacum  and  Elegia  —  also  parodies  on  the  Eton 
Ode,  the  Elegy,  and  the  Bard. 

A  Select  Collection  of  Poems,  from  the  most  approved 
Authors.     Edinburgh.     Printed    by   A.    Donaldson,    1768. 

2  vols. 

In  these  volumes  are  included  Eton  (I,  128),  Spring  (I,  131),  Cat 
(I,  133),  Elegy  (I,  220),  Adversity  (I,  225),  Progress  of  Poesy  (II,  196), 
and  Bard  (II,  201). 

Ode  Performed  in  the  Senate-House  at  Cambridge,  July  i, 
1769,  at  the  Installation  of  his  Grace  Augustus-Henry 
Fitzroy,  Duke  of  Grafton,  Chancellor  of  the  University. 
Set  to  Music  by  Dr.  Randal,  Professor  of  Music.  (Anony- 
mous.)    Cambridge,  1769.     Quarto. 

This  is  a  thin  quarto  of  eight  pages,  printed  in  large  type. 

Poems.     London,  1770.     Svo. 

Elegy.     London,  1771. 

Poems.     Glasgow,  1773.     i8mo. 

Poems,  etc.     In  British  Poets  (vol.  42).     London,  1773.     8vo. 

Elegy.     New  Edition.     London,  1775.     Svo. 

The  Poems  of  Mr.  Gray.     To  which  are  prefixed  Memoirs  of 

his  Life  and  Writings,  by  W.  Mason,  M.A.     York,   1775. 

Quarto. 

This  thick  quarto  is  the  original  standard  Life  of  Gray.  Mason 
simply  arranged  Gray's  letters  in  chronological  order,  connecting  them 
by  comments  of  his  own.  He  also  printed  among  the  letters  a  number 
of  Gray's  posthumous  pieces. 


INTRODUCTION.  xxxvii 

The  Poems,  etc.,  by  W.  Mason,  M.A.     The  Second  Edition. 
London,  1775.     Quarto. 
This  is  the  same  as  the  preceding. 

Poems  by  Mr.  Gray.     Dublin,  1775.     i2mo. 

Very  nearly  the  same  as  the  Dublin  edition  of  1768. 

Poems.     [With  plates.]     London  and  Edinburgh,  1776. 

The  Poems,  etc.,  by  W.  Mason,  M.A.     2  vols.     Dublin,  1776. 
This  contains  the  Memoirs  also. 

The  Poems,  etc.,  by  W.  Mason,  M.A.     4  vols.     York,  1778. 

This  contains  the  Memoirs  also,  but  in  this  case  the  Poems  come  in 
the  first  volume,  and  the  Memoirs  in  the  other  three. 

The  Poems  of  Mr.  Gray.     With  Notes  by  Gilbert  Wakefield, 
B.A.     London,  1786.     8vo. 

The  copious  notes  in  this  volume,  with  the  abundance  of  parallel 
passages,  have  been  a  storehouse  for  Mitford  and  subsequent  editors. 

Designs  by  Mr.  R.  Bentley,  for  Six  Poems  by  Mr.  T.  Gray. 
1789.     Folio. 

The  Works,  etc.,  by  W.  Mason,  with  extracts  from  the  MSS., 
by  T.  J.  Mathias.     2  vols.     London,  18 14.     Quarto. 

Mathias  here  printed  for  the  first  time  Gray's  observations  on  Enghsh 
Metre,  the  Notes  on  Aristophanes  and  Plato,  and  other  prose  fragments. 

Poems,  with  Life,  Notes,  and  an  Essay  on  his  Poetry,  by  the 
Rev.  J.  Mitford.     London,  18 14. 

The  Rev.  John  Mitford's  name  is  now  inseparably  associated  with 
that  of  Gray.  He  was  the  first  man  to  edit  the  text  wilh  accuracy,  and 
for  many  years  he  produced  edition  after  edition,  constantly  adding  new 
and  important  matter.  All  subsequent  editors  have  drawn  largely  from 
Mitford. 

Observations  on  the  Writings   and   on  the  Character  of  Mr. 
Gray.     By  T.  J.  Mathias.     London,  181 5. 

This  is  a  reprint  in  a  small  volume  of  the  "  postscript "  to  Mathias's 
edition  of  Gray's  Complete  Works  in  1814, 

Poetical  Works,  with  Life,  etc.    Edited  by  J.  Mitford.    "  Aldine 
Poets."     London,  1830. 


xxxviii  INTRODUCTION. 

The  Works  of  Thomas  Gray.  Edited  by  J.  Mitford.  4  vols. 
London  (Pickering),  1836. 

The  Correspondence  of  Thomas  Gray  and  the  Rev.  Norton 
Nicholls.  With  Other  Pieces  Hitherto  Unpublished. 
Edited  by  the  Rev.  John  Mitford.  London  (Pickering), 
1843. 

This  small  volume  was  published  as  Vol.  V  to  the  preceding  edition. 

Poetical  Works.     Eton,  1845. 

Mitford  wrote  a  new  Life  of  Gray  for  this  edition. 

The  Poetical  Works  of  Thomas  Gray.  "  Aldine."  Edited  by 
J.  Mitford.     London  (Pickering),  1853. 

The  Correspondence  of  Thomas  Gray  and  William  Mason, 
To  which  are  added  some  Letters  addressed  by  Gray  to 
the  Rev.  James  Brown,  D.D.  With  Notes  and  Illustra- 
tions, by  the  Rev.  John  Mitford.     London,  1853.     8vo. 

Poetical  Works,  with  Life,  etc.  Edited  by  J.  Mitford. 
"Aldine."      London,  1866. 

The  Elegy,  and  Pindaric  Odes.  In  Longer  English  Poems, 
edited  by  the  Rev.  J.  W.  Hales.     London,  1872. 

Select  Poems,  etc.  Edited  by  W.  J.  Rolfe.  New  York,  1876. 
Revised  edition,  1886. 

The  Works  of  Thomas  Gray.  Edited  by  Edmund  Gosse. 
4  vols.     London,  1884. 

This  is  now  the  standard  edition  of  Gray,  as  it  contains  more  matter 
than  any  other.  The  letters  are  all  arranged  in  a  chronological  order, 
and  several  texts  of  the  Elegy  are  given,  besides  a  number  of  biblio- 
graphical notes.  In  spite  of  the  claims  of  this  edition,  however,  the  text 
is  not  perfectly  accurate. 

Poetical  Works.  Edited  by  John  Bradshaw.  New  "Aldine." 
London,  1891. 

Selections  from  the  Poetry  and  Prose.  Edited  by  Wm.  Lyon 
Phelps.     Boston,  1894. 


INTRODUCTION.  xxxix 

Writings  About  Gray. 

[Only  those  are  included  that  are  believed  to  be  most  useful.] 

Life  of   Gray.     By   Dr.   Johnson,   in  his   Lives   of   the   Poets. 

London,  1 779-1 781. 

This  has  the  well-deserved  reputation  of  being  the  worst  "  Life  "  in  the 
series  of  which  it  formed  a  part ;  but  it  is  interesting  on  historical  and 
critical  grounds. 

An  Inquiry  into  some  Passages  in  Dr.  Johnson's  Lives,  etc. 
By  the  Rev.  R.  Potter.     London,  1783. 

Potter,  who  was  an  enthusiastic  admirer  of  Gray,  and  of  Romantic 
poetry  in  general,  sharply  attacked  Johnson  for  his  strictures  on  Gray's 
Pindaric  Odes. 

Gray.  An  Essay  by  Matthew  Arnold,  prefixed  to  the  selections 
from  Gray  in  Ward's  English  Poets.     London,  1880. 

For  remarks  on  Arnold's  view  of  Gray's  sterility,  see  hitroductio7t  to 
the  present  edition,  part  ii. 

Life  of  Gray.  By  Edmund  Gosse.  In  "English  Men  of 
Letters"  series.     London,  1882.     A  new  edition  in   1889. 

This  is  now  the  standard  "  Life,"  but  it  is  so  inaccurate  as  to  be 
untrustworthy  in  matters  of  detail. 

Gray.  By  Leslie  Stephen.  Article  in  the  Dictionary  of 
National   Biography,   1890. 

Gray  and  his  Friends.  Letters  and  Relics  in  great  part 
hitherto  unpublished.  By  Duncan  C.  Tovey.  Cambridge, 
1890. 

This  book,  besides  containing  an  excellent  general  Introduction  on 
Gray,  consists  of  a  number  of  letters  and  journals,  printed  with  great 
accuracy.     The  book  is  really  a  memorial  to  Richard  West. 

Gray.  An  Essay  by  James  Russell  Lowell,  in  Latest  Literary 
Essays.     Boston,  1892. 

This  essay  was  first  published  in  the  New  Princeton  Review,  1S86  ;  it 
is  one  of  the  most  brilliant  and  charming  pieces  Mr.  Lowell  ever  com- 
posed. 


APPENDIX. 


-»<>•- 


GRAY'S  KNOWLEDGE  OF  OLD  NORSE. 

The  most  emphatic  assertion  of  Gray's  knowledge  of  the  Old 
Norse  language  is  made  by  Mr.  Gosse  {Life  of  Gray,  pp.  i6o  ff.), 
who  declares  that,  "  whereas  there  is  no  absolute  proof  that  Gray 
was  a  Welsh  scholar,"  The  Fatal  Sisters  and  The  Descent  of  Odin 
"  were  translated  direct  from  the  Icelandic." 

"  It  may  well  inspire  us  with  admiration  of  the  poet's  intellectual 
energy,"  continues  this  critic,  "  to  find  that  he  had  mastered  a 
language  1  which  was  hardly  known,  at  that  time,  by  any  one  in 
Europe,  except  a  few  learned  Icelanders,  whose  native  tongue  made 
it  easy  for  them  to  understand  Norroena.  Gray  must  have  puzzled 
it  out  for  himself,  probably  with  the  help  of  the  Index  Linguae 
Scytho-Scandicae  of  Verelius.  At  that  time  what  he  rightly  calls  the 
Norse  tongue  was  looked  upon  as  a  sort  of  mystery ;  it  was  called 
'  Runick,'  and  its  roots  were  supposed  to  be  derived  from  the 
Hebrew.  The  Fatal  Sisters  is  a  lay  of  the  eleventh  century,  the 
text  of  which  Gray  found  in  one  of  the  compilations  of  Torfoeus 
[read  Torfattsl  (Thormod  Torveson),  a  great  collector  of  ancient 
Icelandic  vellums  at  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

"...  The  Descent  of  Odin  is  a  finer  poem,  better  paraphrased. 
Gray  found  the  original  in  a  book  by  Bartolinus  [read  Bartkoli?nis^, 
one  of  the  five  great  physicians  of  that  name  who  flourished  in 
Denmark  during  the  seventeenth  century.  The  poem  itself  is  the 
Vegtamskvida,  one  of  the  most  powerful  and  mysterious  of  those 
ancient  lays  which  form  the  earliest  collection  we  possess  of  Scandi- 
navian poetry.  It  is  probable  that  Gray  never  saw  the  tolerably 
complete  but  very  inaccurate  edition  of  Scemtcndar  [read  Scsmttndar'] 
Edda  which  existed  in  his  time,  nor  knew  the  wonderful  history  of 
this  collection,  which  was  discovered  in  Iceland,  in  1643,  ^7  Brynjolfr 

1  Mr.  Leslie  Stephen,  in  his  life  of  Gray  in  the  Diet,  of  Nat.  Biogr.,  refers  to 
Mr.  Gosse  as  authority  for  the  statement  that  Gray  learned  Icelandic. 


xlii  APPENDIX. 

Sveinnson,  Bishop  of  SkalahoJt.  The  text  which  Gray  found  in 
Bartolinus,  however,  was  sufficiently  true  to  enable  him  to  make  a 
better  translation  of  the  Vegtamskvida  than  any  which  has  been 
attempted  since,  and  to  make  us  deeply  regret  that  he  did  not 
*  imitate  '  more  of  these  noble  Eddaic  chants.  He  even  attempts 
a  philological  ingenuity,  for,  finding  that  Odin,  to  conceal  his  true 
nature  from  the  Volva,  calls  himself  Vegtam,  Gray  translates  this 
strange  word  '  traveller,'  evidently  tracing  it  to  veg,  a.  way.  He 
omits  the  first  stave,  which  recounts  how  the  ^sir  sat  in  council  to 
deliberate  on  the  dreams  of  Balder,  and  he  also  omits  four  spurious 
stanzas,  in  this  showing  a  critical  tact  little  short  of  miraculous, 
considering  the  condition  of  scholarship  at  that  time." 

This  evidence  looks  convincing,  but  unfortunately  it  has  no  basis 
of  fact.  The  number  of  mistakes  in  the  few  sentences  just  quoted 
is  surprising.  What  is  meant  by  "the  tolerably  complete  but  very 
inaccurate  edition  of  Scemundar  Edda  which  existed  in  [Gray's] 
time,"  it  is  hard  to  divine.  There  was  no  edition  at  all  of  the 
so-called  Scemund^s  Edda  {i.e.,  The  Poetic  Edda)  extant  in  Gray's 
time,  for  none  had  been  published.  Gray  died  in  177 1,  and  the  first 
edition  of  this  Edda  (the  great  Copenhagen  edition)  began  to  be 
published  in  1787,  and  was  not  completed  till  1828.  Meantime 
Rask  and  Afzelius  had  published  a  complete  edition  in  one  small 
volume  in  18 18.  Of  the  more  than  thirty  pieces  which  compose  the 
Poetic  Edda  only  three  ( Vqhispd,  Hdvamdl}  and  Vegtaitiskvi'^a) 
had  been  printed  before   Gray's   death.     The  only  edition   of  the 

1  The  Vnhispa  and  the  Hdvamdl  YaA  been  edited  by  Resenius  (1665)  in  a 
volume  which  was  usually  bound  up  with  his  edition  of  the  Prose  Edda. 
The  poems  were  accompanied  by  a  Latin  translation  by  Stefan  Olafsson. 
The  stanzas  of  the  Hdvamal  concerning  runes  were  printed  by  Resenius  as  a 
separate  poem,  and  this  division  accounts  for  Mallet's  words  "  le  petit  poeme 
intitule  le  chapitre  runique,  ou  la  magic  d''Oditi'^  {Introd.  a  PHist.  de 
Dayinemarc,  2d  ed.,  II,  285  ;  Northern  Antiquities,  1770,  II,  216).  When 
Mallet  first  published  his  second  volume  (1,756),  he  did  not  even  know 
whether  any  part  of  the  Poetic  Edda  was  in  existence  except  Vqluspd, 
Hdvamdl  and  this  so-called  Riaiic  Chapter,  and  this  uncertainty  was  shared 
by  the  English  translator  in  1770  {Northern  Atitiqtcities,  II,  201) ;  but  before 
he  published  his  third  edition  (17S7),  Mallet  had  learned  better  (II,  264  ff.). 
The  Hdvamdl  was  re-edited  by  Goransson  in  1750.  A  pretty  complete  list 
of  the  contents  of  the  Poetic  Edda  is  given  in  Peringskjold's  catalogue  of 
Copenhagen  MSS.  appended  to  Wanley's  Catalogtis  (1705),  p.  310.  Wanley's 
Catalog7{s  (which  Gray  knew)  forms,  with  Hickes's  Thesaurus,  the  Antigua 
Literatura  Septcfitrionalis. 


APPENDIX.  xliii 

Vegtamskvi^a  (the  original  of  The  Descent  of  Odin)  was  that  in 
Bartholin's  book.^  We  are  forced  to  conjecture  that  Mr.  Gosse  has 
for  the  moment  confused  the  Poetic  Edda  with  the  Prose  Edda  of 
Snorri,  which  was  edited  by  Resenius  in  1665,  and  by  Goransson 
in   1746.2 

All  this,  to  be  sure,  though  it  may  shake  one's  confidence  in  Mr. 
Gosse's  accuracy,  does  not  affect  the  validity  of  his  arguments  from 
Gray's  "philological  ingenuity"  in  translating  Vegtamr  by  Travelle}- 
and  from  the  omission  of  the  four  spurious  stanzas.  But  these 
arguments  themselves  rest  on  other  misapprehensions.  As  to  the 
four  spurious  stanzas,  they  are  omitted  by  Gray  simply  because  he 
was  unaware  of  their  existence.  They  do  not  stand  in  the  Arna- 
Magnsan  MS.  or  in  Bartholin's  text,  and  were  not  printed  at  all 
until  17S7,  when  the  Copenhagen  editors  inserted  them  in  the  text 
from  late  paper  manuscripts.^  The  rendering  of  Vegtamr  by  Trav- 
eller would  doubtless  be  significant  but  for  a  fact  which  Mr.  Gosse 
neglects  to  mention,  though  it  is  of  the  first  importance  in  settling 
the  main  question :  Bartholin  appended  to  each  stanza  of  the 
original  a  literal  translation  into  Latin,  and  that  translation,  which 
renders  Vegtamr  by  Viator,  relieved  Gray  of  the  necessity  of  "at- 
tempting a  philological  ingenuity  "  in  interpreting  this  strange  word. 

The  fact  that  Bartholin's  texts  of  the  two  poems  which  Gray 
translated"^  are,  like  all  his  other  Norse  quotations,  accompanied  by 

1  The  Vegta?nskvi^a  is  not  contained  in  the  manuscript  discovered  by 
Bishop  Brynjolfr  Sveinsson,  probably  in  1643, —  the  so-called  Codex  Regius. 
It  is  preserved  (except  for  some  paper  copies  of  no  consequence)  only  in  the 
Arna-Magnaean  MS.  748,  which  contains,  to  be  sure,  merely  a  somewhat 
different  redaction  of  what  is  essentially  the  same  collection.  The  poem  was 
doubtless  made  known  to  Bartholin  by  Arni  Magnusson  himself. 

2  Goransson's  Latin  version  of  the  first  tract  in  the  Prose  Edda  ( The 
Deceptio7i  of  Gylfi)  was  reprinted  in  Northern  Antiqicities,  1770,  II,  273-352. 

3  See  Bugge,  Norroen  Fornkva;:^i^  pp.  138-140.  Mason  reprinted  Bartho- 
lin's Latin  translation  in  his  note  at  the  end  of  The  Descent  of  Odin. 
Mitford's  remark  that  "  the  first  five  stanzas  of  this  Ode  are  omitted  "  by 
Gray  is  repeated  by  Dr.  Bradshaw  without  investigation :  the  fact  is  that 
Gray  omitted  but  one  stanza  (tlie  first,  also  omitted  by  Bartholin)  of  the 
genuine  text,  the  other  four  are  those  four  spurious  strophes  that  misled  Mr. 
Gosse.    Ten  other  spurious  lines,  whicli  are  in  Bartholin,  are  accepted  by  Gray. 

■i  The  Fatal  Sisters  is  extracted  by  Gray  from  Torfneus,  but  Torfaeus 
refers  to  Bartholin,  from  whom  he  repeats  both  the  original  and  the  Latin 
version.  Gray  too  adds  a  reference  to  Bartholin.  In  his  preface  Bartholin 
acknowledges  his  indebtedness  to  the  famous  Icelander  Arni  Magnusson  with 


xliv  APPENDIX. 

literal  Latin  renderings,  has,  as  has  just  been  suggested,  an  important 
bearing  on  the  general  question  of  Gray's  knowledge  of  the  Old 
Norse  tongue.  By  the  use  of  these  literal  renderings.  Gray  could 
have  WTitten  both  The  Fatal  Sisters  and  The  Descent  of  Odin  without 
reading  a  word  in  the  original  language.  What  we  know  of  his 
scholarly  habits  and  of  his  insatiate  love  of  investigation  makes  it 
incredible,  however,  that  he  should  have  contented  himself  with  so 
humble  a  process.  It  is  more  probable  that  he  carefully  compared 
the  Latin  text  with  the  Old  Norse  and  by  this  means  made  out 
something  of  the  originals.  In  this  he  would  be  assisted  by  the 
striking  similarity  of  many  of  the  Scandinavian  words  to  their 
English  cognates.  Since  he  is  likely  to  have  done  this  with  many 
other  interesting  texts  in  Bartholin  and  elsewhere,  he  may  perhaps 
have  arrived  at  a  halting  knowledge  of  the  language :  that  he  ever 
"  mastered  "  it,  there  is  at  any  rate  no  evidence  in  his  two  "  Norse 
odes." 

The  notes  and  introductions  which  Gray  wrote  for  these  Norse 
odes  seem  at  first  sight  to  supply  some  of  the  evidence  which  is 
lacking  in  the  odes  themselves.  But  an  examination  of  this  apparatus 
reduces  this  testimony  also  to  a  minimum.  Of  all  the  comments 
which  Gray  wrote  on  The  Descent  of  Odin,  including  the  long 
note  on  the  seeresses,^  the  material  is  furnished  in  Latiji  by 
Bartholin  and  some  of  it  was  also  accessible  to  all  Europe  in  Mallet. 
The  Preface  to  The  Fatal  Sisters  \s  from  Tori^ns-  [Or cades,  i,  lo, 
pp.  33  ff.)  and  the  other  notes  are,  as  before,  due  to  Bartholin.  Of 
only  two   bits   of  information   is   this  not  true :    the  translation  of 

regard  to  the  Latin  versions  of  the  Norse  poems  that  he  quotes  ("ex  ver- 
sione,  quse  accuratae  docti  Islandi  Arnae  Magnsei  industriae  complementum 
suum  debet "). 

1  Not  printed  by  Gray,  but  added  by  Mason  from  Gray's  papers  (see  p.  169, 
below). 

2  Gray's  date  for  the  Battle  of  Clontarf,  — "  Christmas  day "  {Preface  to 
The  Fatal  Sisters),  —  is  a  mere  slip.  Torfaeus  {Orcades,  \,  10,  p.  35)  clearly 
puts  the  battle  on  Good  Friday :  "  Die  Veneris,  qvi,  in  diem  memoriae  pas- 
sionis  Servatoris,  "Z^wrripia  dictum,"  etc.  Gray's  note  on  the  conversion  of 
the  Orcadians  is  also  derived  in  the  main  from  Torfaeus,  who  (Orcades,  i,  10, 
p.  ;^;^)  gives  an  account  of  the  heroic  measures  adopted  in  995  by  King  Olave 
Tryggvason  to  secure  the  baptism  of  Earl  Sigurd.  All  the  knowledge  which 
he  shows  of  the  "  liistory  of  Olaus  Tryggueson  "  in  the  same  note,  he  could 
easily  have  collected  from  the  Orcades  and  from  Torfasus's  HistoricB  Rcrum 
Norvegtcartim  (1711  ff.,  see  vi,  7  ff.,  II,  246  ff.),  supplemented  perhaps  by 
Bartliolin  or  by  Peringskjiild's  Latin  version  of  the  Hehnskrifigla  (1697). 


APPEXDIX.  xlv 

fiolkunnug  (read  fjqlkunnig)  by  multi-scia  and  of  visinda-kona  by 
oraculorum  niulier  in  the  long  note  inserted  by  Mason  from  Gray's 
papers  (see  Descettt  of  Odi?2,  v.  51,  p.  170,  below)  is  not  based  on 
anything  in  Bartholin  and  seems  to  betray  a  knowledge  of  the 
component  parts  of  those  words.  But  we  cannot  build  much  on 
this.  Fjql-  is  a  very  common  prefix  and  Gray  may  have  found  it 
explained  in  various  places.  In  the  Glossary  to  Verelius's  edition  of 
the  Hei-z'arar  Saga  (Upsala,  1672),  for  example,  all-fiolku7inugur 
(put  under  f)  is  glossed  by  viultiscius.  In  the  same  Glossary 
visinda  menu  is  explained  by  oraculorum  interpretes :  this  would 
furnish  Gray  with  the  meaning  of  visinda-,  and  kofia  is  a  very  common 
word,  the  meaning  of  which  he  would  infallibly  discover  by  the 
process  of  comparison  suggested  above.  We  have  no  real  evidence 
that  Gray  knew  this  work  of  Verelius,  but  the  presumption  is 
perhaps  that  way.  It  was  certainly  known  to  Warton  ^  and  Percy,'-^ 
and  there  was  a  copy  in  the  Bodleian  Library.^ 

Important  direct  evidence  of  Gray's  interest  in  Scandinavian  study 
is  contained  in  his  well-known  letter  to  Mason,  Jan.  13,  175S  [Works, 
II,  350  ff.).  In  this  he  insists  on  the  distinction  between  Celtic  and 
Northern  antiquities  and  expresses  himself  as  follows  about  Odin  : 
"  Woden  himself  is  supposed  not  to  have  been  older  than  Julius 
Caesar;  but  let  him  have  lived  when  he  pleases,  it  is  certain  that 
neither  he  nor  his  Valhalla  were  heard  of  till  many  ages  after.  This 
is  the  doctrine  of  the  Scalds,  not  of  the  Bards;  these  are  the  songs 
of  Hengist  and  Horsa,  a  modern  new-fangled  belief  in  comparison 
•with  that  which  you  ought  to  possess."  *     "  In  short,"  he  remarks  in 

1  History  of  English  Poetry,  ed.  Hazlitt,  I,  120. 

2  See  Five  Pieces  of  Runic  Poetry,  1763,  p.  4. 

3  Catalogus  Librorum  Septent?-iotialiu77t  apjjended  to  Jonsson  (Runolphus 
Jonas),  Grajn}?iaticce  IslandiccB  Ruditncnta,  Oxford,  168S,  p.  179.  Of  course, 
as  Mr.  Gosse  suggests,  Gray  may  have  used  the  Index  Linguce  veteris  Scytho- 
Scandicce  sive  Gothicce  of  Verelius  (Upsala,  1691). 

■*  I.e.,  the  Druidical  belief,  which  Mason  needed  for  his  Caractacus.  In  his 
play,  Mason  makes  the  chorus  of  Druids  present  a  sword  to  the  hero : 

"  Caractacus ! 
Behold  this  sword  :  The  sword  of  old  Belinus, 
Stain'd  with  the  blood  of  giants,  and  its  name  Trifingus." 

{Poe?ns,  1764,  p.  257.) 

In  a  note  (p.  316)  he  saj-s :  "Trifingus.  The  name  of  the  inchanted 
sword  in  the  Hervarer  Saga."  The  reader  will  recognize  the  famous 
Tyff?ig. 


xliv  APPENDIX. 

literal  Latin  renderings,  has,  as  has  just  been  suggested,  an  important 
bearing  on  the  general  question  of  Gray's  knowledge  of  the  Old 
Norse  tongue.  By  the  use  of  these  literal  renderings,  Gray  could 
have  written  both  The  Fatal  Sisters  and  The  Descent  of  Odin  without 
reading  a  word  in  the  original  language.  What  we  know  of  his 
scholarly  habits  and  of  his  insatiate  love  of  investigation  makes  it 
incredible,  however,  that  he  should  have  contented  himself  with  so 
humble  a  process.  It  is  more  probable  that  he  carefully  compared 
the  Latin  text  with  the  Old  Norse  and  by  this  means  made  out 
something  of  the  originals.  In  this  he  would  be  assisted  by  the 
striking  similarity  of  many  of  the  Scandinavian  words  to  their 
English  cognates.  Since  he  is  likely  to  have  done  this  with  many 
other  interesting  texts  in  Bartholin  and  elsewhere,  he  may  perhaps 
have  arrived  at  a  halting  knowledge  of  the  language :  that  he  ever 
"  mastered  "  it,  there  is  at  any  rate  no  evidence  in  his  two  "  Norse 
odes." 

The  notes  and  introductions  which  Gray  wrote  for  these  Norse 
odes  seem  at  first  sight  to  supply  some  of  the  evidence  which  is 
lacking  in  the  odes  themselves.  But  an  examination  of  this  apparatus 
reduces  this  testimony  also  to  a  minimum.  Of  all  the  comments 
which  Gray  wrote  on  The  Descent  of  Odin,  including  the  long 
note  on  the  seeresses,!  the  material  is  furnished  iti  Latin  by 
Bartholin  and  some  of  it  was  also  accessible  to  all  Europe  in  Mallet. 
The  Preface  to  The  Fatal  Sisters  is  from  Tori^exis-  {Orcades,  i,  lo, 
pp.  2)3  ff-)  ^^d  the  other  notes  are,  as  before,  due  to  Bartholin.  Of 
only  two   bits   of  information   is   this  not  true :    the  translation  of 

regard  to  the  Latin  versions  of  the  Norse  poems  that  he  quotes  ("ex  ver- 
sione,  quae  accuratae  docti  Island!  Arnae  Magnsei  industriae  complementum 
suum  debet "). 

1  Not  printed  by  Gray,  but  added  by  Mason  from  Gray's  papers  (see  p.  169, 
below). 

2  Gray's  date  for  the  Battle  of  Clontarf,  — "  Christmas  day "  {Preface  to 
The  Fatal  Sisters),  —  is  a  mere  slip.  Torfaeus  {Orcades,  i,  10,  p.  35)  clearly 
puts  the  battle  on  Good  Friday :  "  Die  Veneris,  qvi,  in  diem  memorise  pas- 
sionis  Servatoris,  "ZcjT-qpia  dictum,"  etc.  Gray"s  note  on  the  conversion  of 
the  Orcadians  is  also  derived  in  the  main  from  Torfaeus,  who  (Orcades,  i,  10, 
p.  33)  gives  an  account  of  the  heroic  measures  adopted  in  995  by  King  Olave 
Tryggvason  to  secure  the  baptism  of  Earl  Sigurd.  All  the  knowledge  which 
he  shows  of  the  "  history  of  Olaus  Tryggueson  "  in  the  same  note,  he  could 
easily  have  collected  from  the  Orcades  and  from  Torfieus's  Htstorice  Reriun 
Norvegicariun  (1711  ff.,  see  vi,  7  ff.,  II,  246  ff.),  supplemented  perhaps  by 
Bartholin  or  by  Peringskjold's  Latin  version  of  the  Hehnskrifigla  (1697). 


APPENDIX.  xlv 

fiolkunmtg  (read  f/'qlkunnig)  by  mjdti-scia  and  of  visinda-kona  by 
oraculorum  midier  in  the  long  note  inserted  by  Mason  from  Gray's 
papers  (see  Descent  of  Odin,  v.  51,  p.  170,  below)  is  not  based  on 
anything  in  Bartholin  and  seems  to  betray  a  knowledge  of  the 
component  parts  of  those  words.  But  we  cannot  build  much  on 
this.  Fjq^l-  is  a  very  common  prefix  and  Gray  may  have  found  it 
explained  in  various  places.  In  the  Glossary  to  Verelius's  edition  of 
the  Hervarar  Saga  (Upsala,  1672),  for  example,  all-jiolkunnugur 
(put  under  f)  is  glossed  by  7?iultiscius.  In  the  same  Glossary 
visinda  inenji  is  explained  by  oraculorum  interpretes :  this  would 
furnish  Gray  with  the  meaning  of  visinda-,  and  kona  is  a  very  common 
word,  the  meaning  of  which  he  would  infallibly  discover  by  the 
process  of  comparison  suggested  above.  We  have  no  real  evidence 
that  Gray  knew  this  work  of  Verelius,  but  the  presumption  is 
perhaps  that  way.  It  was  certainly  known  to  Warton  ^  and  Percy,^ 
and  there  was  a  copy  in  the  Bodleian  Library.^ 

Important  direct  evidence  of  Gray's  interest  in  Scandinavian  study 
is  contained  in  his  well-known  letter  to  Mason,  Jan.  13,  1758  [Works, 
II,  350  ff.).  In  this  he  insists  on  the  distinction  between  Celtic  and 
Northern  antiquities  and  expresses  himself  as  follows  about  Odin  : 
"  Woden  himself  is  supposed  not  to  have  been  older  than  Julius 
Caesar;  but  let  him  have  lived  when  he  pleases,  it  is  certain  that 
neither  he  nor  his  Valhalla  were  heard  of  till  many  ages  after.  This 
is  the  doctrine  of  the  Scalds,  not  of  the  Bards ;  these  are  the  songs 
of  Hengist  and  Horsa,  a  modern  new-fangled  belief  in  comparison 
with  that  which  you  ought  to  possess."  ^     "  In  short,"  he  remarks  in 

1  History  of  English  Poetry,  ed.  Hazlitt,  I,  120. 

2  See  Five  Pieces  of  Runic  Poetry,  1763,  p.  4. 

3  Catalogus  Librorum  Septentrionaliicm  appended  to  Jonsson  (Runolphus 
Jonas),  Grajnjfiaticcr  Islandiccg  Ruditnenfa,  Oxford,  168S,  p.  179.  Of  course, 
as  Mr.  Gosse  suggests,  Gray  may  have  used  the  Index  Lingtice  veteris  Scytho- 
ScandiccB  sive  Gothicce  of  Verelius  (Upsala,  1691). 

4  I.e.,  the  Druidical  belief,  which  Mason  needed  for  his  Caractacus.  In  his 
play,  Mason  makes  the  chorus  of  Druids  present  a  sword  to  the  hero : 

"  Caractacus ! 
Behold  this  sword :  The  sword  of  old  Belinus, 
Stain'd  with  the  blood  of  giants,  and  its  name  Trifingus." 

{Poems,  1764,  p.  257.) 

In  a  note  (p.  316)  he  says:  "Trifingus.  The  name  of  the  inchanted 
sword  in  the  Hervarer  Saga."  The  reader  will  recognize  the  famous 
Tyring. 


xlvi  APPENDIX. 

the  same  letter  (II,  352),  "  I  am  pleased  with  the  Gothic  Elysium. 
Do  you  think  I  am  ignorant  about  either  that,  or  the  hell  before,  or 
the  twilight?  I  have  been  there,  and  have  seen  it  all  in  Mallet's 
Introductiott  to  the  History  of  Deni?iark  (it  is  in  French),  and  many 
other  places."  The  first  volume  of  Mallet's  Introduction  had  ap- 
peared in  1755,  ^^  second  (containing  a  translation  of  much  of  the 
Prose  Edda)  in  1756.  If  Gray's  attention,  like  that  of  Europe  in 
general,  was  first  called  to  the  Norse  mythology  by  this  work,  it  is 
interesting  to  observe  that  he  had  so  far  extended  his  reading  by 
the  beginning  of  1758  as  to  have  seen  the  chief  doctrines  of  the 
Odinic  system  "  in  many  other  places."  The  letter  gives  us  no 
inkling  as  to  what  these  places  were,  but  it  does  inform  us  what  one 
of  them  was  not :  Gray  expressly  disclaims  having  read  "  Keysler," 
i.e.,  the  Antiqtiitates  Selectae  Septentrionales  et  Celticae  of  Johann 
Georg  Keysler,  Hannover,  1720.1 

In  1 761  Gray  translated  The  Fatal  Sisters  and  The  Descent  of 
Odin,  and  these  show  that  he  had  been  reading  the  treatise  of 
Thomas  Bartholin  De  Cansis  contemnendce  Mortis  (Copenhagen, 
1689)  with  much  attention  and  that  he  had  at  any  rate  consulted  the 
Orcades  of  Torfaeus  (1697).-  If,  as  there  seems  little  reason  for 
doubting,  the  Observations  ofi  the  Pseiido-Rhythnius  {Works,  I,  361 
ff.),  intended  like  the  Norse  Odes  as  material  for  the  projected  His- 
tory of  Efiglish  Poetry,  were  written  at  about  the  same  time,^  we  may 

1  Mr.  Gosse's  suggestion  (Gray's  Works,  II,  351)  that  the  "Keysler" 
mentioned  by  Gray  "was  probably  the  second  English  edition,  of  1757,  of 
Johann  Georg  Keysler's  Travels  throtigh  Germafiy,  Hungary,  Bohemia, 
Switzerland,  Italy,  and  Lorrain  "  was  made  in  momentary  forgetfulness  of 
Mason's  letter  of  Jan.  5,  175S  {Correspondetice  of  Gray  and  Mason,  ed.  Mit- 
ford,  p.  120),  to  which  this  of  Gray's  was  a  reply :  Mason  mentions  the  title 
of  the  book,  and  in  his  reply  to  Gray  (Jan.  16,  1758  ;  id.,  p.  130),  he  returns 
to  the  subject  and  gives  an  extract  from  Keysler.  The  work  was  in  its  day 
well-known  among  antiquaries  and  is  still  worth  consulting. 

-  Torfaeus  (pormd'Sr  Torfason),  b.  1636,  d.  1719,  was  a  learned  Icelander 
and  one  of  the  founders  of  the  science  of  Northern  Antiquities.  His  most 
important  works  (chiefly  historical)  were  written  while  he  was  the  King  of 
Denmark's  historiographer  royal  for  Norway.  His  History  of  the  Orkneys 
{Historia  Orcadum,  Copenhagen,  1S67),  is  the  work  here  referred  to. 

3  The  essay  contains  a  note  as  to  Death  attd  Life  and  Scottish  Field,  two 
poems  in  the  Percy  MS. :  "  I  read  them  in  a  MS.  collection  belonging  to  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Thomas  Piercy  in  1761  "  {Works,  I,  371);  but  this  note  proves 
little.  In  a  letter  to  Montagu,  May  5,  1761  {Letters,  Qd.  Cunningham,  III, 
399),  Walpole  writes:  "Gray  and  Mason  were  with  me,  and  we  listened  to 


XA^    J.     1  jj.  r  u-^  ^  ^\.  * 


AlVH 


add  Sir  William  Temple's  essay  Of  Poetry,^  the  Literatura  Kunica  of 
Ole  Worm  (Olaus  Wormius),  the  great  Danish  antiquary  (Copen- 
hagen, 1636;  2d  ed.,  1 651),  and  the  Linguarum  Vett.  Scptentriona- 
liutti  Thesaurus  of  the  celebrated  Dr.  George  Hickes  (Oxford,  1705). 
Gray's  references  to  the  Thesaurus  in  this  essay  show  that  he  had 
used  the  work  with  diligence,  and  in  such  a  use  of  it  he  must  have 
paid  some  attenti?)n  to  the  Old  Norse  Grammar  which  it  contains.^ 
To  Worm  he  refers  for  a  remark  about  the  Old  Norse  stanza  known 
as  drottkvcEtt  and  for  a  passage  from  the  tenth-century  rhyming  seal- 
die  poem  the  Ransom  of  Egill.^  The  latter  reference  is  particularly 
interesting.  Gray  quotes  six  lines  of  the  poem  in  the  original  ( Works, 
I,  862,  n.  2).  His  quotation  is  from  Worm,  but  he  has  transliterated 
Worm's  Runic  characters  into  Roman  letters.  This  he  could  of 
course  easily  do  without  a  knowledge  of  Icelandic  by  using  the  tables 
of  Runic  equivalents  given  in  Worm  and  in  Hickes.  Worm's  book 
furnishes  a  Latin  version  of  the  Ransom,  but  no  transliteration.^ 

It  is  far  from  improbable  that  Gray  knew  all  these  books  before 
1758.     Worm   and   Hickes  were   regarded  as  indispensable  to  any 

the  nightingales  till  one  o'clock  in  the  morning.  Gray  has  translated  two 
noble  incantations  from  the  Lord  knows  who,  a  Danish  Gray,  who  lived  the 
Lord  knows  when.  They  are  to  be  enchased  in  a  history  of  English  bards, 
which  Mason  and  he  are  writing;  but  of  which  the  former  has  not  written  a 
word  yet,  and  of  which  the  latter,  if  he  rides  Pegasus  at  his  usual  foot-pace, 
will  finish  the  first  page  two  years  hence."  Mr.  Gosse  {Life  of  Gray,  p.  164) 
erroneously  remarks  that  Walpole  "  did  not  see  these  poems  till  they  were 
printed"  in  1768. 

1  From  which  comes  the  remark  referred  to  by  Gray  at  beginning  of  the 
essay  (Works  of  Temple,  ed.  of  1770,  111,413).  Temple's  essay  Of  Heroic 
Virtue,  the  companion-piece  to  that  Of  Poetry,  was  also,  no  doubt,  familiar  to 
Gray,  though  he  does  not  mention  it  anywhere :  it  contains  much  about  Odin. 
Mason,  whose  "no-reading"  seems  to  have  been  a  jest  with  Gray  (Corre- 
spondence of  Gray  and  Mason,  ed.  Mitford,  p.  130)  discovered  these  two 
essays  for  himself  (id.,  p.  131). 

2  The  Grammaticce  Islandicce  Ruditnenta  of  Rundlfr  Jdnsson  (Runolphus 
Jonas),  Gray  does  not  mention  this  particular  treatise.  Of  the  other  con- 
tents of  the  Thesaurus  he  refers  expressly  in  this  essay  to  Hickes's  Institu- 
tioncs  Grammaticce  Anglo-SaxoniccB  et  Mceso-Gothicce  and  Pistitutiones 
Grammaticce  Pranco-TheotisccB.     He  also  refers  to  Wanley's  Catalogue. 

3  The  H(ifti%lausn  of  Egill  Skalla-Grimsson  (Wisen,  Carmina  Norroena, 
I,  20  ff. ;  Vigfusson,  Corpus  Poeticum  Boreale,  I,  267  ff.).  There  is  a  translit- 
eration as  well  as  a  translation  in  Percy's  Five  Pieces  of  Runic  Poetry,  1763, 
pp.  49  ff.,  92  ff. 

•*  Literatura  Runica,  2d  ed.,  pp.  207  ff. 


xlviii  APPENDIX. 

serious  investigator  of  English  antiquities  —  a  subject  in  which  Gray 
was  deeply  interested.  The  minute  nature  of  his  historical  studies 
is  well  indicated  by  a  single  note  to  The  Bard  (v,  ii),  in  which  he 
quotes  Higden's  Polychronicon  and  Matthew  of  Westminster  on  a 
point  of  Welsh  topography  (see  below,  p.  36).  It  is  possible,  then, 
that  he  first  consulted  Worm  and  Hickes^  as  a  student  of  English 
history,  and  that  he  was  familiar  with  them  when  he  WTOte  to  Mason 
in  1 7 58.  If  so,  we  have  at  once  some  of  the  "many  other  places" 
in  which  Gray  had  seen  the  "  Gothic  Elysium  "  and  other  particulars 
of  the  Odinic  system.^ 

Another  book  in  Gray's  time  regarded  as  of  capital  importance  to  the 
student  of  English  history,  and,  therefore,  not  likely  to  have  been  neg- 
lected by  him,  is  Robert  Sheringham's  De  Angloriim  Gentis  Oi-igine 
Disceptatio  (Cambridge,  1670),^  in  which  there  are  a  sufficient  number 
of  extracts  from  the  Prose  Edda  (with  Latin  translations)  to  inform 
the  inquirer  as  to  "  hell  "  and  "  Elysium."  Sheringham  also  dis- 
cusses the  wanderings  and  the  powers  of  Odin  in  an  elaborate  way. 
If  to  these  works  Gray  had,  before  1758,  added  Bartholin,  he  was 
within  bounds  in  his  phrase  "  and  in  many  other  places." 

Hickes's  Thesaurus^  whenever  Gray  studied  it,  offered  him  the 
original  text  and  an  English  prose  version  of  a  magnificent  Old 
Norse  poem.  The  Wakin^g  of  Angantyr  (from  the  Hervarar  Saga). 
This  translation  by  Hickes  has  never  received  from  students  of 
Romanticism  the  attention  which  it  deserves.     Buried  in  the  great 

1  See  note  3  below. 

*  The  "Elysium"  is  mentioned  by  Torfsus,  Hist.  Rerunt  Noveg.,  iii,  18, 
I,  186. 

3  The  regard  in  which  Worm,  Hickes  and  Sheringham  were  held  by  Eng. 
lish  antiquaries  is  shown,  not  only  by  the  frequency  with  which  they  are  cited 
by  eighteenth-century  historians,  but  by  an  interesting  piece  of  direct  testi- 
mony :  Sir  Joseph  Ayloffe  in  answering  the  inquiries  of  a  correspondent  "  as 
to  what  are  the  most  proper  books  to  be  read  by  a  young  student  in  our  an- 
tiquities "  includes  in  his  list  Sheringham,  the  Thesaurus,  Worm's  Monti- 
tnenia  Danica  "and  his  other  pieces"  (see  his  letter,  Dec.  28,  1769,  in 
Nichols,  Literary  Anecdotes,  VHI,  4S6).  Sir  William  Temple's  Excerpta  ex 
Edda  and  Excerpta  ex  Snorrone  in  his  essay  Of  Heroic  Virtue  (  Works,  ed. 
1770,  III,  354)  may  have  been  selected  from  passages  quoted  by  Sheringham, 
pp.  234  ff.  It  will  be  remembered  that  Wormius  was  adopted  by  Pope  as  a 
name  for  the  typical  mousing  antiquary  {Dunciad,  iii,  iSS;  cf.  Pope's  dis- 
claiming note).  Blair  in  his  Critical  Dissertation  on  the  Poems  of  Ossiaji, 
1763,  p.  4,  n.,  refers  to  Worm  and  gives  the  Latin  version  of  the  Ragnar 
Lo^brdk  ode. 


APPENDIX.  xlix 

Thesaurus,  it  would  not  have  merited  much  at  their  hands  but  for 
two  facts  :  (i)  it  was  extracted  therefrom  and  printed  (along  with  the 
Icelandic),  with  the  typographical  arrangement  of  verse,  in  the  Mis- 
cellatiy  Poems  "published  by  Mr.  Dryden,"  1716,  VI,  387-91,  the 
translator's  name  not  being  given  ;  (2)  it  was  adopted  {with  due 
credit)  by  Percy  for  his  Runic  Poetry.  Whether  or  not,  then.  Gray 
knew  Verelius's  edition  of  the  Hervarar  Saga,  he  had  opportunities 
enough  to  become  acquainted  with  the  gem  of  the  work  —  this 
splendid  poem.  It  is  curious  that  Warton  seems  to  say  that  Gray 
himself  translated  The  Waking  of  Aiiga7ityr  —  an  almost  incredible 
blunder.!  One  collection  with  which  Warton  seems  to  have  had 
some  familiarity  would  have  been  a  joy  to  Gray:  E.  J.  Bjorner's 
Nordiska  Kdmpa-Dater  (Stockholm,  1737),  a  folio  containing,  in  par- 
allel columns,  a  Latin  and  a  Swedish  translation  of  the  Sagas  of 
Hrolf  Kraki,  FriS)>j6f,  Ragnar,  the  Volsungs,  and  other  important 
texts. 

The  work  to  which  Gray  was  chiefly  indebted  for  whatever 
scholarly  knowledge  of  Scandinavian  matters  he  possessed  was 
undoubtedly  the  Antiqtiitatu?n  Danicarum  de  Causis  contemptcB 
Mortis  a  Danis  adhuc  Gentilihis  Libri  Tres  (Copenhagen,  16S9).  The 
author,  Thomas  Bartholin  the  younger  (i 659-1 690),  professor  at 
Copenhagen,  is  justly  celebrated  as  one  of  the  founders  of  the  science 
of  Northern  antiquities.  His  book  is  very  learned,  and,  for  a 
seventeenth-century  polymath,  surprisingly  methodical.  His  object  is 
to  explain  the  almost  proverbial  contempt  for  death  on  the  part  of  the 
heathen  Norsemen.  First  undertaking  to  prove  the  fact  of  this  senti- 
ment, he  proceeds  to  trace  its  causes,  quoting  copiously  from  Old  Norse 
texts,  many  of  them  unprinted,  in  prose  and  verse,  —  among  them 
not  less  than  eighteen  articles  of  the  Poetic  Edda.  In  the  course  of 
his  argument  he  has  occasion  to  discuss,  with  much  fullness,  the 
ancient  Scandinavian  beliefs  as  to  the  Fates,  runes,  magic,  prophecy, 
Hel,  Valhalla,  etc.  The  whole  forms  a  quarto  of  more  than  700 
pages,  which  is  still  read  with  interest  by  scholars.  Gray  could 
have  got  hold  of  no  better  book  for  his  purpose  ;  and  he  evidently 

1 "  This  piece  \sc.  the  Anglo-Saxon  Battle  of  Brunanbur}i\^  and  many  other 
Saxon  odes  and  songs  now  extant,  are  written  in  a  metre  resembling  that  of 
the  scaldic  dialogue  at  the  tomb  of  Angantyr,  which  has  been  beautifully 
translated  into  English,  in  the  true  spirit  of  the  original,  and  in  a  genuine 
strain  of  poetry,  by  Gray."  History  of  English  Poetry,  ed.  Hazlitt,  I,  124. 
Blair,  Critical  Dissertation,  1763,  p.  6,  refers  to  the  fact  that  Hickes's  version 
was  pubUshed  in  the  Miscellany  Poems. 


1  APPENDIX. 

studied  it  with  great  care,  as  is  shown  by  his  observations  that  accom- 
pany the  Norse  Odes  and  by  some  other  facts  to  which  attention 
is  called  in  the  Notes  on  these  poems  in  the  present  edition  (see 
below,  pp.  164-170).  It  should  not  be  forgotten,  however,  that 
Bartholin,  like  Worm  and  Torfasus,  never  thinks  of  quoting  a 
particle  of  Old  Norse  without  appending  a  Uteral  Latin  translation, 
so  that  whatever  information  his  book  contained  was  within  the 
reach  of  every  educated  man  in  Europe,  whether  a  student  of  Norse 
or  not.  A  close  student  of  his  book,  however,  would  inevitably 
pick  up  a  knowledge  of  the  meanings  of  some  words  and  phrases 
and  even  acquire  a  sort  of  ability  to  read  the  passages  quoted. 
This  is  probably  the  kind  of  knowledge  possessed  by  Gray.  No 
doubt  he  had  read  over  the  originals  of  The  Fatal  Sisters  and  The 
Descent  of  Odin  till  he  was  able,  after  a  fashion,  to  translate  them 
without  looking  at  his  "crib";  but  that  he  ever  "mastered  the 
language,"  as  Mr.  Gosse  thinks,  —  that  he  ever  was  able  to  trans- 
late a  poem  of  which  he  had  never  seen  a  translation,  —  there  is, 
as  we  have  seen,  not  a  particle  of  evidence.^ 

G.   L.   K. 

1  Two  linguistic  errors  of  a  somewhat  elementary  character  remain  as 
indications  of  the  limits  of  Gray's  knowledge  of  Old  Norse.  In  the  little 
excursus  on  seeresses  extracted  by  Mason  from  the  poet's  papers  and  printed 
as  a  note  to  The  Desce)it  of  Odin,  v.  51  (see  below,  p.  170),  Gray  follows 
Bartholin  (p.  688)  in  using  the  dative  sogii  (J.e.,  sqgtt)  :  "  is  described  at  large 
in  Eirik's  Rauda  Sogu."  Bartholin  uses  this  form  because  the  construction 
of  the  Latin  sentence  demands  it ;  in  writing  English,  however,  there  was 
no  such  compulsion,  and  Gray,  if  he  had  been  sure  of  his  ground,  would 
doubtless  have  written  Saga.  In  the  same  note  Gray  says  that  the  seeresses 
"were  called  Fiolkyjigi'''  following  a  bad  reading  in  Barthohn's  quotation 
from  Eir'tks  Saga  Rau^a  (p.  689).  FJqlkyngi  is  an  abstract  noun  meaning 
sorcery,  as  Gray  might  have  learned,  if  he  had  been  a  close  student  of  tlie 
language,  from  the  brief  Dictionarium  Islandicum  in  Hickes's  Thesaurus 
(III,  yy):  "fiolkinge,  artes  magicce^''  or  from  a  passage  of  Snorri  quoted,  in 
translation,  by  Sheringham  (p.  243), 


POEMS. 


*  ■ 


I. 

ODE   ON   THE    SPRING. 

—    ■/  •  -* 

Lo  !  where  the  rosy-bosom'd  Hours,         / 

Fair  Venus'  train  appear,  J'^k^^o^c 

Disclose  the  long-expecting  flowers, 

And  wake  the  purple  year ! 
The  Attic  warbler  pours  her  throat,  5 

Responsive  to  the  cuckow's  note, 

The  untaught  harmony  of  spring : 
While  whisp'ring  pleasure  as  they  fly, 
Cool  Zephyrs  thro'  the  clear  blue  sky 

Their  gather'd  fragrance  fling.  lo 

Where'er  the  oak's  thick  branches  stretch 

A  broader  browner  shade  ; 
Where'er  the  rude  and  moss-grown  beech 

O'er-canopies  the  glade  ^ 
Beside  some  water's  rushy  brink  i^ 

With  me  the  Muse  shall  sit,  and  think 

(At  ease  reclin'd  in  rustic  state) 
How  vain  the  ardour  of  the  Crowd, 
How  low,  how  little  are  the  Proud, 

How  indigent  the  Great !  20 

Still  is  the  toiling  hand  of  Care : 
The  panting  herds  repose  : 

^  a  bank 


O'ercanopied  with  luscious  woodbine. 

Shakesp.  Mids.  Nighfs  Dream, 


POEMS. 

Yet  hark,  how  thro'  the  peopled  air 

The  busy  murmur  glows  ! 
The  insect  youth  are  on  the  wing,  25 

Eager  to  taste  the  honied  spring, 

And  float  amid  the  liquid  noon  :  ^ 
Some  lightly  o'er  the  current  skim, 
Some  shew  their  gaily-gilded  trim 

Quick-glancing  to  the  sun.^  30 

To  Contemplation's  sober  eye  ^ 

Such  is  the  race  of  Man : 
And  they  that  creep,  and  they  that  fly. 

Shall  end  where  they  began. 
Alike  the  Busy  and  the  Gay  35 

But  flutter  thro'  life's  little  day, 

In  fortune's  varying  colours  drest  : 
Brush'd  by  the  hand  of  rough  jMischance, 
Or  chill'd  by  age,  their  airy  dance 

They  leave,  in  dust  to  rest.  40 

Methinks  I  hear  in  accents  low 

The  sportive  kind  reply : 
Poor  moralist  !  and  what  art  thou  ? 

A  solitary  fly  ! 
Thy  Joys  no  glittering  female  meets,  45 

No  hive  hast  thou  of  hoarded  sweets. 


1  "  Nare  per  aestatem  liquidam 


Virgil.  Georg.  lib.  4. 

2 sporting  with  quick  glance 

Shew  to  the  sun  their  waved  coats  drop'd  with  gold. 

Milton's  Paradise  Lost,  book  7. 

3  While  insects  from  the  threshold  pjeach,  etc.  —  M.  Green,  in  the 
Grotto.     Dodsley's  Miscellanies,  Vol.  V.  p.  161. 


ODE    ON  ETON   COLLEGE, 


/ 


No  painted  plumage  to  display : 
On  hasty  wings  thy  youth  is  flown  ; 
Thy  sun  is  set,  thy  spring  is  gone  — 

We  frolick,  while  'tis  May,  50 


11. 

ODE  ON  A  DISTANT  PROSPECT  OF  ETON  COLLEGE. 

" AvdpcjTTo^  •   iKavT)  Trp6(f>a<ns  et's  rb  5yo-TLi%eii'. 

Menander. 

Ye  distant  spires,  ye  antique  towers. 

That  crown  the  watry  glade, 
Where  grateful  Science  still  adores 

Her  Henry's  ^  holy  Shade  ; 
And  ye,  that  from  the  stately  brow  5 

Of  Windsor's  heights  th'  expanse  below 

Of  grove,  of  lawn,  of  mead  survey. 
Whose  turf,  whose  shade,  whose  flowers  among 
Wanders  the  hoary  Thames  along 

His  silver-winding  way.  10 

Ah  happy  hills,  ah  pleasing  shade, 

Ah  fields  belov'd  in  vain. 
Where  once  my  careless  childhood  stray'd, 

A  stranger  yet  to  pain  ! 
I  feel  the  gales,  that  from  ye  blow,  15 

A  momentary  bliss  bestow. 

As  waving  fresh  their  gladsome  wing. 
My  weary  soul  they  seem  to  sooth. 
And,  redolent  ^  of  joy  and  youth. 

To  breathe  a  second  spring.  20 

1  King  Henry  the  Sixth,  Founder  of  the  College. 

2  And  bees  their  honey  redolent  of  spring. 

Dryden's  Ead/e  on  the  Pythag.  System. 


POEMS. 

Say,  Father  Thames,  for  thou  hast  seen 

Full  many  a  sprightly  race 
Disporting  on  thy  margent  green 

The  paths  of  pleasure  trace, 
Who  foremost  now  delight  to  cleave  25 

With  pliant  arm  thy  glassy  wave  ? 

The  captive  linnet  which  enthrall? 
What  idle  progeny  succeed 
To  chase  the  rolling  circle's  speed, 

Or  urge  the  flying  ball  ?  30 

While  some  on  earnest  business  bent 

Their  murm'ring  labours  ply 
'Gainst  graver  hours,  that  bring  constraint 

To  sweeten  liberty  : 
Some  bold  adventurers  disdain  35 

The  limits  of  their  little  reign, 

And  unknown  regions  dare  descry : 
Still  as  they  run  they  look  behind. 
They  hear  a  voice  in  every  wind. 

And  snatch  a  fearful  joy.  40 

Gay  hope  is  theirs  by  fancy  fed, 

Less  pleasing  when  possest ; 
The  tear  forgot  as  soon  as  shed. 

The  sunshine  of  the  breast  : 
Theirs  buxom  health  of  rosy  hue,  45 

Wild  wit,  invention  ever-new, 

And  lively  chear  of  vigour  born  ; 
The  thoughtless  day,  the  easy  night, 
The  spirits  pure,  the  slumbers  light, 

That  fly  th'  approach  of  morn.  50 


ODE   ON  ETON  COLLEGE.  5 

Alas,  regardless  of  their  doom, 

The  little  victims  play ! 
No  sense  have  they  of  ills  to  come, 

Nor  care  beyond  to-day : 
Yet  see  how  all  around  'em  wait  '  55 

The  Ministers  of  human  fate. 

And  black  Misfortune's  baleful  train  ! 
Ah,  shew  them  where  in  ambush  stand 
To  seize  their  prey  the  murth'rous  band ! 

Ah,  tell  them,  they  are  men !  60 

These  shall  the  fury  Passions  tear, 

The  vulturs  of  the  mind, 
Disdainful  Anger,  pallid  Fear, 

And  Shame  that  sculks  behind ; 
Or  pineing  Love  shall  waste  their  youth,  65 

Or  Jealousy  with  rankling  tooth,  * 

That  inly  gnaws  the  secret  heart, 
And  Envy  wan,  and  faded  Care, 
Grim-visag'd  comfortless  Despair, 

And  Sorrow's  piercing  dart.  70 

Ambition  this  shall  tempt  to  rise, 

Then  whirl  the  wretch  from  high. 
To  bitter  Scorn  a  sacrifice, 

And  grinning  Infamy. 
The  stings  of  Falshood  those  shall  try,  75 

And  hard  Unkindness'  alter'd  eye. 

That  mocks  the  tear  it  forc'd  to  flow ; 
And  keen  Remorse  with  blood  defil'd, 
And  moody  Madness  ^  laughing  wild 

Amid  severest  woe.  80 

^ Madness  laughing  in  his  ireful  mood. 

Dryden's  Fable  of  Palamon  and  Arcite. 


POEMS. 

Lo,  in  the  vale  of  years  beneath 

A  griesly  troop  are  seen. 
The  painful  family  of  Death, 

More  hideous  than  their  Queen  : 
This  racks  the  joints,  this  fires  the  veins,  85 

That  every  labouring  sinew  strains, 

Those  in  the  deeper  vitals  rage  : 
Lo,  Poverty,  to  fill  the  band, 
That  numbs  the  soul  with  icy  hand, 

And  slow-consuming  Age.  9° 

To  each  his  suff'rings  :  all  are  men, 

Condemn'd  alike  to  groan, 
The  tender  for  another's  pain  ; 

Th'  unfeeling  for  his  own. 
Yet  ah  !  why  should  they  know  their  fate  ?  95 

Since  sorrow  never  comes  too  late, 

And  happiness  too  swiftly  flies. 
Thought  would  destroy  their  paradise. 
No  more  ;  where  ignorance  is  bliss, 

'Tis  folly  to  be  wise.  100 


III. 

HYMN   TO   ADVERSITY. 

—  TiT]va. 
T6v  (^poveiv  iBpoToiis  65u}- 
(Tavra,  tu>  irddei.  fxadav 
Q4vTa  Kvpicjs  exeij'. 

^schylus,  in  Agamemnone. 

Daughter  of  Jove,  relentless  Power, 
Thou  Tamer  of  the  human  breast, 
Whose  iron  scourge  and  tort'ring  hour. 
The  Bad  affright,  afflict  the  Best ! 


HYMN   TO   ADVERSITY.  7 

Bound  in  thy  adamantine  chain  .S 

The  ^roud  are  taught  to  taste  of  pain, 

And  purple  Tyrants  vainly  groan 

With  pangs  unf elt  before,  unpitied  and  alone. 

When  first  thy  Sire  to  send  on  earth     • 

Virtue,  his  darling  Child,  design'd,  lo 

To  thee  he  gave  the  heav'nly  Birth, 

And  bad  to  form  her  infant  mind. 

Stern  rugged  Nurse  !   thy  rigid  lore 

With  patience  many  a  year  she  bore  : 

What  sorrow  was,  thou  bad'st  her  know,  15 

And  from  her  own  she  learn'd  to  melt  at  others'  woe. 

Scared  at  thy  frown  terrific,  fly 

Self-pleasing  Folly's  idle  brood. 

Wild  Laughter,  Noise,  and  thoughtless  Joy,  *    . 

And  leave  us  leisure  to  be  good.  20 

Light  they  disperse,  and  with  them  go 

The  summer  Friend,  the  fiatt'ring  Foe ; 

By  vain  Prosperity  received. 

To  her  they  vow  their  truth,  and  are  again  believed. 

» 

Wisdom  in  sable  garb  array'd  25 

Immers'd  in  rapt'rous  thought  profound, 

And  Melancholy,  silent  maid 

With  leaden  eye,  that  loves  the  ground, 

Still  on  thy  solemn  steps  attend  : 

Warm  Charity,  the-gen'ral  Friend,  30 

With  Justice  to  herself  severe, 

And  Pity  dropping  soft  the  sadly-pleasing  tear. 

Oh,  gently  on  thy  Suppliant's  head, 

Dread  Goddess,  lay  thy  chast'ning  hand  ! 

Not  in  thy  Gorgon  terrors  clad,  35 

Nor  circled  with  the  vengeful  Band 


8  POEMS. 

(As  by  the  Impious  thou  art  seen) 

With  thund'ring  voice,  and  threat'ning  mien, 

With  screaming  Horror's  funeral  cry, 

Despair,  and  fell  Disease,  and  ghastly  Poverty.         4c 

Thy  form  benign,  oh  Goddess,  wear, 

Thy  milder  influence  impart. 

Thy  philosophic  Train  be  there 

To  soften,  not  to  wound  my  heart, 

The  gen'rous  spark  extinct  revive,  45 

Teach  me  to  love  and  to  forgive, 

Exact  my  own  defects  to  scan. 

What  others  are,  to  feel,  and  know  myself  a  Man. 


IV. 
SONNET 

[on    the    death    of    RICHARD   WEST.] 

In  vain  to  me  the  smileing  Mornings  shine. 

And  redning  Phoebus  lifts  his  golden  Fire  : 
The  Birds  in  vain  their  amorous  Descant  joyn  ; 

Or  chearful  Fields  resume  their  green  Attire  : 
These  Ears,  alas  !  for  other  Notes  repine,  5 

A  different  Object  do  these  Eyes  require. 
My  lonely  Anguish  melts  no  Heart,  but  mine  ; 

And  in  m.y  Breast  the  imperfect  Joys  expire. 
Yet  Mornins:  smiles  the  busv  Race  to  chear, 

And  new-born  Pleasure  brings  to  happier  Men  :      lo 
The  Fields  to  all  their  wonted  Tribute  bear  : 

To  warm  their  little  Loves  the  Birds  complain  : 
I  fruitless  mourn  to  him,  that  cannot  hear. 

And  weep  the  more,  because  I  weep  in  vain. 

At  Stoke,  Aug.  1742. 


ODE    ON  A    CAT.  9 

V. 

ODE  ON  THE  DEATH  OF  A  FAVOURITE  CAT, 

DROWNED     IN     A    TUB     OF    GOLD     FISHES. 

'TwAS  on  a  lofty  vase's  side, 
Where  China's  gayest  art  had  dy'd 

The  azure  flowers,  that  blow ; 
Demurest  of  the  tabby  kind, 
The  pensive  Selima  reclin'd,  5 

Gazed  on  the  lake  below. 

Her  conscious  tail  her  joy  declar'd  ; 
The  fair  round  face,  the  snowy  beard, 

The  velvet  of  her  paws, 
Her  coat,  that  with  the  tortoise  vies,  lo 

Her  ears  of  jet,  and  emerald  eyes, 

She  saw  ;  and  purr'd  applause. 

Still  had  she  gaz'd  ;  but  'midst  the  tide 
Two  angel  forms  were  seen  to  glide, 

The  Genii  of  the  stream  : 
Their  scaly  armour's  Tyrian  hue 
Thro'  richest  purple  to  the  view 

Betray'd  a  golden  gleam. 

The  hapless  Nymph  with  wonder  saw : 

A  whisker  first  and  then  a  claw,  2c 

With  many  an  ardent  wish, 
She  stretch'd  in  vain  to  reach  the  prize. 
What  female  heart  can  gold  despise  ? 

What  Cat's  averse  to  fish  ? 

Presumptuous  Maid  !  with  looks  intent  25 

Again  she  stretch'd,  again  she  bent, 
Nor  knew  the  gulf  between. 


I  o  POEMS. 


(Malignant  Fate  sat  by,  and  smil'd) 
The  slipp'ry  verge  her  feet  beguil'd, 

She  tumbled  headlono-  in.  3° 


't> 


Eight  times  emerging  from  the  flood 
She  mew'd  to  ev'ry  watry  God, 

Some  speedy  aid  to  send. 
No  Dolphin  came,  no  Nereid  stirr'd  : 
Nor  cruel  Tom^  nor  Susa?i  heard.  35 

A  Fav'rite  has  no  friend  ! 

From  hence,  ye  Beauties,  undeceiv'd. 
Know,  one  false  step  is  ne'er  retriev'd. 

And  be  with  caution  bold. 
Not  all  that  tempts  your  wand'ring  eyes  40 

And  heedless  hearts,  is  lawful  prize  ; 
•  Nor  all,  that  glisters,  gold. 


VI. 

THE   ALLIANCE    OF   EDUCATION   AND    GOVERNMENT. 

A    FRAGMENT. 

Co7n  m  entary?- 

The  Author's  subject  being  (as  we  have  seen)  The 
necessary  Alliance  between  a  good  Form  of  Government  a?id 
a  good  Mode  of  Education,  in  order  to  produce  the  Happi- 
ness of  Manki?td,  the  Poem  opens  with  two  similes  ;  an 
uncommon  kind  of  exordium  :  but  which  I  suppose  the  5 
Poet  intentionally  chose,  to  intimate  the  analogical  method 
he  meant  to  pursue  in  his  subsequent  reasonings,      ist, 

1  "  On  carefully  reviewing  the  scattered  papers  in  prose  which  he 
writ,  as  hints  for  his  own  use  in  the  prosecution  of  this  work,  I  think 
it  best  to  form  part  of  them  into  a  kind  of  commentary."  —  Mason. 


EDUCATION  AND    GOVERNMENT.  n 

He  asserts  that  men  without   education   are  like  sickly 
plants  in  a  cold  or  barren  soil,  (Une  i  to  5,  and  8  to  12  ;) 
and,  2dly,  he  compares  them,  when  unblest  with  a  just  10 
and  well  regulated  government,  to   plants   that  will   not 
blossom  or  bear  fruit  in  an  unkindly  and  inclement  air 
(1.   5    to  9,   and   1.    13   to   22).      Having  thus   laid  down 
the  two  propositions  he   means  to  prove,  he  begins  by 
examining  into  the  characteristics  which  (taking  a  general  15 
view   of   mankind)    all   men   have   in   common   one  with 
another  (1.  22  to  39)  ;  they  covet  pleasure  and  avoid  pain 
(1.  31)  ;  they  feel  gratitude  for  benefits  (1.  34)  ;  they  desire 
to  avenge  wrongs,  which  they  effect  either  by  force  or 
cunning  (1.  35)  ;  they  are  linked  to  each  other  by  their  20 
common  feelings,  and  participate  in  sorrow  and  in  joy  (1. 
36,  37).     If  then  all  the  human  species  agree  in  so  many 
moral  particulars,  whence  arises  the  diversity  of  national 
characters?     This  question  the  Poet  puts  at  1.  38,  and 
dilates  upon  to  1.  64.     Why,  says  he,  have  some  nations  25 
shewn  a  propensity  to  commerce  and  industry ;  others  to 
war  and  rapine  ;  others  to  ease  and  pleasure  ?  (1.  42  to 
46)     Why  have  the  Northern  people  overspread,  in  all 
ages,  and  prevailed  over  the  Southern  ?  (1.  46  to  58)     Why 
has  Asia  been,  time  out  of  mind,  the  seat  of  despotism,  30 
and  Europe  that  of  freedom  ?   (1.  59  to  64).     Are  we  from 
these  instances  to  imagine  men  necessarily  enslaved  to 
the  inconveniences  of  the  climate  where  they  were  born? 
(1.  64  to  72)     Or  are  we  not  rather  to  suppose  there  is  a 
natural  strength  in  the  human  mind,  that  is  able  to  van-  35 
quish  and  break  through  them?  (\.  72  to  84)     It  is  con- 
fest,  however,  that  men  receive  an  early  tincture  from  the 
situation  they  are  placed  in,  and  the  climate  which  pro- 
duces them  (1,  84  to  88).     Thus  the  inhabitants  of  the 
mountains,  inured  to  labour  and  patience,  are  naturally  40 
trained  to  war  (1.  88  to  96)  ;    while  those  of  the  plain 


1 2  POEMS. 

are  more  open  to  any  attack,  and  softened  by  ease  and 
plenty  (1.  96  to  99).  Again,  the  ^^gyptians,  from  the 
nature  of  their  situation,  might  be  the  inventors  of  home- 
navigation,  from  a  necessity  of  keeping  up  an  intercourse  45 
between  their  towns  during  the  inundation  of  the  Nile 
(1.  99  to  ...  ).  These  persons  would  naturally  have  the 
first  turn  to  commerce,  who  inhabited  a  barren  coast  like 
the  Tyrians,  and  were  persecuted  by  some  neighbouring 
tyrant  ;  or  were  drove  to  take  refuge  on  some  shoals,  like  50 
the  Venetian  and  Hollander  ;  their  discovery  of  some 
rich  island,  in  the  iniancy  of  the  world,  described.  The 
Tartar  hardened  to  war  by  his  rigorous  climate  and 
pastoral  life,  and  by  his  disputes  for  water  and  herbage 
in  a  country  without  land-marks,  as  also  by  skirmishes  55 
between  his  rival  clans,  was  consequently  fitted  to 
conquer  his  rich  Southern  neighbours,  whom  ease  and 
luxury  had  enervated  :  Yet  this  is  no  proof  that  liberty 
and  valour  may  not  exist  in  Southern  climes,  since  the 
Syrians  and  Carthaginians  gave  noble  instances  of  both  ;  60 
and  the  Arabians  carried  their  conquests  as  far  as  the 
Tartars.  Rome  also  (for  many  centuries)  repulsed  those 
very  nations,  which,  when  she  grew  weak,  at  length 
demolished  her  extensive  Empire.  *  *  * 


ESSAY    I. 


.   .    .    110x07',  (Ji  ^yade  ;'Ta.v  yap  aoLdav 

OvTi  TTw  els  Atdav  ye  tov  eKXeXdOovra  (pvXa^eis. 

Theocritus,  Id.  I.  63. 

As  sickly  Plants  betray  a  niggard  earth, 
Whose  barren  bosom  starves  her  gen'rous  birth, 
Nor  genial  warmth,  nor  genial  juice  retains 
Their  roots  to  feed,  and  fill  their  verdant  veins  : 


EDUCATION  AND    GOVERNMENT.  13 

And  as  in  climes,  where  Winter  holds  his  reign,  5 

The  soil,  tho'  fertile,  will  not  teem  in  vain, 

Forbids  her  gems  to  swell,  her  shades  to  rise. 

Nor  trusts  her  blossoms  to  the  churlish  skies  : 

So  draw  Mankind  in  vain  the  vital  airs, 

Unform'd,  unfriended,  by  those  kindly  cares,  '« 

That  health  and  vigour  to  the  soul  impart, 

Spread  the  young  thought,  and  warm  the  opening  heart  : 

So  fond  Instruction  on  the  growing  powers 

Of  Nature  idly  lavishes  her  stores. 

If  equal  Justice  with  unclouded  face  '5 

Smile  not  indulgent  on  the  rising  race, 

And  scatter  with  a  free,  tho'  frugal  hand 

Light  golden  showers  of  plenty  o'er  the  land  : 

But  Tyranny  has  fix'd  her  empire  there 

To  check  their  tender  hopes  with  chilling  fear,  20 

And  blast  the  blooming  promise  of  the  year. 

This  spacious  animated  scene  survey 
From  where  the  rolling  Orb,  that  gives  the  day, 
His  sable  sons  with  nearer  course  surrounds 
To  either  pole,  and  life's  remotest  bounds.  25 

How  rude  soe'er  th'  exteriour  form  we  find, 
Howe'er  opinion  tinge  the  varied  mind, 
Alike,  to  all  the  kind,  impartial  Heav'n 
The  sparks  of  truth  and  happiness  has  giv'n  : 
With  sense  to  feel,  with  memory  to  retain,  3° 

They  follow  pleasure,  and  they  fly  from  pain  ; 
Their  judgment  mends  the  plan  their  fancy  draws, 
Th'  event  presages,  and  explores  the  cause. 
The  soft  returns  of  gratitude  they  know, 
By  fraud  elude,  by  force  repell  the  foe,  35 

While  mutual  wishes,  mutual  woes  endear   . 
The  social  smile,  and  sympathetic  tear. 


1 4  POEMS. 

Say,  then,  thro'  ages  by  what  fate  confin'd 
To  different  cUmes  seem  different  souls  assign'd  ? 
How  measur'd  laws  and  philosophic  ease  40 

Fix,  and  improve  the  polish'd  arts  of  peace  ; 
There  industry  and  gain  their  vigils  keep. 
Command  the  winds,  and  tame  th'  unwilling  deep. 
Here  force  and  hardy  deeds  of  blood  prevail ; 
There  languid  Pleasure  sighs  in  every  gale.  45 

Oft  o'er  the  trembling  nations  from  afar 
Has  Scythia  breath'd  the  living  cloud  of  war  ; 
And,  where  the  deluge  burst,  with  sweepy  sway 
Their  arms,  their  kings,  their  gods  were  rolFd  away. 
As  oft  have  issued,  host  impelling  host,  50 

The  blue-eyed  myriads  from  the  Baltick  coast. 
The  prostrate  South  to  the  Destroyer  yields 
Her  boasted  titles,  and  her  golden  fields  : 
With  grim  delight  the  Brood  of  winter  view 
A  brighter  day,  and  Heav'ns  of  azure  hue,  55 

Scent  the  new  fragrance  of  the  breathing  rose, 
And  quaff  the  pendent  vintage  as  it  grows. 
Proud  of  the  yoke,  and  pliant  to  the  rod, 
Why  yet  does  Asia  dread  a  monarch's  nod. 
While  European  freedom  still  withstands  60 

Th'  encroaching  tide,  that  drowns  her  lessening  lands  ; 
And  sees  far  off  with  an  indignant  groan 
Her  native  plains,  and  Empires  once  her  owa 
Can  opener  skies  and  suns  of  fiercer  flame 
O'erpower  the  fire,  that  animates  our  frame  ;  65 

As  lamps,  that  shed  at  eve  a  chearful  ray. 
Fade  and  expire  beneath  the  eye  of  day? 
Need  we  the  influence  of  the  Northern  star 
To  string  our  nerves  and  steel  our  hearts  to  war? 
And,  where  the  face  of  nature  laughs  around,  7° 

Must  sick'ning  virtue  fly  the  tainted  ground? 


EDUCATION  AND   GOVERNMENT.  1$ 

Unmanly  thought !  what  seasons  can  controul, 

What  fancied  zone  can  circumscribe  the  soul, 

Who,  conscious  of  the  source  from  whence  she  springs, 

By  reason's  light,  on  resolution's  wings,  75 

Spite  of  her  frail  companion,  dauntless  goes 

O'er  Libya's  deserts  and  thro'  Zembla's  snows  ? 

She  bids  each  slumb'ring  energy  awake. 

Another  touch,  another  temper  take. 

Suspends  th'  inferior  laws,  that  rule  our  clay  :  80 

The  stubborn  elements  confess  her  sway ; 

Their  little  wants,  their  low  desires,  refine, 

And  raise  the  mortal  to  a  height  divine. 

Not  but  the  human  fabric  from  the  birth 
Imbibes  a  flavour  of  its  parent  earth,  85 

As  various  tracts  enforce  a  various  toil, 
The  manners  speak  the  idiom  of  their  soil. 
An  iron-race  the  mountain-cliffs  maintain. 
Foes  to  the  gentler  genius  of  the  plain  : 
For  where  unwearied  sinews  must  be  found  9° 

With  side-long  plough  to  quell  the  flinty  ground. 
To  turn  the  torrent's  swift-descending  flood. 
To  brave  the  savage  rushing  from  the  wood. 
What  wonder,  if  to  patient  valour  train'd 
They  guard  with  spirit,  what  by  strength  theygain'd?     95 
And  while  their  rocky  ramparts  round  they  see, 
The  rough  abode  of  want  and  liberty, 
(As  lawless  force  from  confidence  will  grow) 
Insult  the  plenty  of  the  vales  below? 

W'hat  wonder,  in  the  sultry  climes,  that  spread  100 

Where  Nile  redundant  o'er  his  summer-bed 
From  his  broad  bosom  life  and  verdure  flings, 
And  broods  o'er  ^gypt  with  his  wat'ry  wings, 
If  with  advent'rous  oar  and  ready  sail 
The  dusky  people  drive  before  the  gale  ;  105 


1 6  POEMS. 

m 

Or  on  frail  floats  to  distant  cities  ride, 
That  rise  and  glitter  *o'er  the  ambient  tide. 

"  I  find  also  among  these  papers  a  single  couplet  much  to^, 
beautiful  to  be  lost,  though  the  place  where  he  meant  to  introduce 
it  cannot  be  ascertained."  —  Mason. 

When  Love  could  teach  a  monarch  to  be  wise, 
And  Gospel-light  first  dawn'd  from  Bullen's  Eyes. 


VVII. 

ELEGY 


WRITTEN    IN    A    COUNTRY    CHURCH-YARD.        \U^ 

The  Curfew  tolls  ^  the  knell  of  parting  day, 
The  lowing  herd  wind  slowly  o'er  the  lea. 

The  plowman  homeward  plods  his  weary  way, 
And  leaves  the  world  to  darkness  and  to  me. 

Now  fades  the  glimmering  landscape  on  the  sight,    5 
And  all  the  air  a  solemn  stillness  holds, 

Save  where  the  beetle  wheels  his  droning  flight. 
And  drowsy  tinklings  lull  the  distant  folds  ; 

Save  that  from  yonder  ivy-mantled  tow'r 

The  mopeing  owl  does  to  the  moon  complain       lo 

Of  such,  as  wand'ring  near  her  secret  bow'r, 
Molest  her  ancient  solitary  reign. 

squilla  di  lontano, 


Che  paia  '1  giorno  pianger,  che  si  muore. 

Dante.     Purgat.  I.  8. 


K 


ELEGY.  "  17 

•    Beneath  those  rugged  elms,  that  yew-tree's  shade, 
Where  heaves  the  turf  in  many  a  mould'ring  heap, 
Each  in  his  narrow  cell  for  ever  laid,  "  15 

The  rude  Forefathers  of  the  hamlet  sleep. 

The  breezy  call  of  incense-breathing  Morn,  ^ 

The  swallow  twitt'ring  from  the  straw-built  shed,  ^^  --^ 

The  cock's  shrill  clarion,  or  the  echoing  horn. 

No  more  shall  rouse  them  from  their  lowly  bed,       20 

For  them  no  more  the  blazing  hearth  shall  burn. 

Or  busy  housewife  ply  her  evening  care  : 
No  children  run  to  lisp  their  sire's  return,  -^ 

Or  climb  his  knees  the  envied  kiss  to  sharer^ 

Oft  did  the  harvest  to  their  sickle  yield,,. ,;  25 

Their  furrow  oft  the  stubborn  glebe  has  broke ; 

How  jocund  did  they  drive  their  team  afield  ! 

How  bow'd  the  woods  beneath  their  sturdy  stroke ! 

Let  not  Ambition  mock  their  useful  toil, 

Their  homely^joys,  and  destiny  obscure  ;  30 

Nor  Grandeur  hear  with  a  disdainful  smile. 

The  short  and  simple  annals  of  the  poor. 

I    The  boast  of  heraldry,  the  pomp  of  pow'r. 

And  all  that  beauty,  all  that  wealth  e'er  gave, 
Awaits  alike  th'  inevitable  hour.  35 

The  paths  of  glory  lead  but  to  the  grave.  // 

Nor  you,  ye  Proud,  impute  to  These  the  fault, 
If  Mem'ry  o'er  their  Tomb  no  Trophies  raise. 

Where  thro'  the  long-drawn  isle  and  fretted  vault 

The  pealing  anthem  swells  the  note  of  praise.  40 


1 8  POEMS. 


Can  storied  urn  or  animated  bust 

Back  to  its  mansion  call  the  fleeting  breath? 
Can  Honour's  voice  provoke  the  silent  dust, 

Or  Flatt'ry  sooth  the  dull  cold  ear  of  Death  ? 


Perhaps  in  this  neglected  spot  is  laid 

Some  heart  once  pregnant  with  celestial  fire ; 

Hands,  that  the  rod  of  empire  might  have  sway'd, 
Or  wak'd  to  extasy  the  living  lyre. 

But  Knowledge  to  their  eyes  her  ample  page 

Rich  with  the  spoils  of  time  did  ne'er  unroll ;  5° 

Chill  Penury  repress'd  their  noble  rage, 

And  froze  the  genial  current  of  the  soul,      -f* 

Full  many  a  gem  of  purest  ray  serene, 

The  dark  unfathom'd  caves  of  ocean  bear  : 

Full  many  a  flower  is  born  to  blushunseen,  55 

And  waste  its  sweetness  on  the  desert  air. 


Some  village-Hampden,  that  with  dauntless  breast 
The  little  Tyrant  of  his  fields  withstood  ;  •,<" " 

Some  mute  inglorious  Milton  here  may  rest, 

Some  Cromwell  guiltless  of  his  country's  blood.       60 

Th'  applause  of  list'ning  senates  to  command, 

The  threats  of  pain  and  ruin  to  despise. 
To  scatter  plenty  o'er  a  smiling  land, 

And  read  their  hist'ry  in  a  nation's  eyes, 

I 

Their  lot  forbad  :  nor  circumscrib'd  alone  ♦'5 

Their  growing  virtues,  but  their  crimes  confin'd ; 
Forbad  to  wade  through  slaughter  to  a  throne, 
'    And  shut  the  gates  of  mercy  on  mankind, 


ELEGY.  19 

The  struggling  pangs  of  conscious  truth  to  hide, 

To  quench  the  bhishes  of  ingenuous  shame,  7° 

Or  heap  the  shrine  of  Luxury  and  Pride 
With  incense  kindled  at  the  Muse's  flame. 

Far  from  the  madding  crowd's  ignoble  strife,  p^ , 

Their  sober  wishes  never  learn'd  to  stray ; 

Along  the  cool  sequester'd  vale  of  life  75 

They  kept  the  noiseless  tenor  of  their  way. 

Yet  ev'n  these  bones  from  insult  to  protect 

Some  frail  memorial  still  erected  nigh, 
With  uncouth  rhimes  and  shapeless  sculpture  deck'd, 

Implores  the  passing  tribute  of  a  sigh.  80 

Their  name,  their  years,  spelt  by  th'  unletter'd  muse, 

The  place  of  fame  and  elegy  supply : 
And  many  a  holy  text  around  she  strews, 

That  teach  the  rustic  moralist  to  die. 

For  who  to  dumb  Forgetfulness  a  prey,  85 

This  pleasing  anxious  being  e'er  resign'd. 

Left  the  warm  precincts  of  the  chearful  day. 
Nor  cast  one  longing  ling'ring  look  behind 


? 


On  some  fond  breast  the  parting  soul  relies, 

Some  pious  drops  the  closing  eye  requires  ;  9^ 

Ev'n  from  the  tomb  the  voice  of  Nature  cries, 
Ev'n  in  our  Ashes  live  their  wonted  Fires. ^ 

1  Ch'  i  veggio  nel  pensier,  dolce  mio  fuoco, 
Fredda  una  lingua,  &  due  begli  occhi  chiusi 
Rimaner  doppo  noi  pien  di  faville. 

Petrarch.  Son.  169. 


20  POEMS. 

For  thee,  who  mindful  of  th'  unhonour'd  Dead 
Dost  in  these  lines  their  artless  tale  relate ; 

If  chance,  by  lonely  contemplation  led,  95 

Some  kindred  Spirit  shall  inquire  thy  fate, 

Haply  some  hoary-headed  Swain  may  say, 
'  Oft  have  we  seen  him  at  the  peep  of  dawn 

'  Brushing  with  hasty  steps  the  dews  away 

'  To  meet  the  sun  upon  the  upland  lawn.  100 

'  There  at  the  foot  of  yonder  nodding  beech 
'  That  wreathes  its  old  fantastic  roots  so  hi^h, 

*  His  listless  length  at  noontide  would  he  stretch, 
*  And  pore  upon  the  brook  that  babbles  by. 

Hard  by  yon  wood,  now  smiling  as  in  scorn,  105 

'  Mutt'ring  his  wayward  fancies  he  would  rove, 
'  Now  drooping,  woeful  wan,  like  one  forlorn, 
'Or  craz'd  with  care,  or  cross'd  in  hopeless  love. 

'  One  morn  I  miss'd  him  on  the  custom'd  hill, 

'Along  the  heath  and  near  his  fav'rite  tree  ;  no 

'  Another  came  ;  nor  yet  beside  the  rill, 

'  Nor  up  the  lawn,  nor  at  the  wood  was  he ; 

'  The  next  with  dirges  due  in  sad  array 

'  Slow  thro'  the  church-way  path  we  saw  him  borti. ' 

'Approach  and  read  (for  thou  can'st  read)  the  lay,     115 
'Grav'd  on  the  stone  beneath  yon  aged  thorn.' 

THE   EPITAPH. 

Here  rests  his  head  tip07i  the  lap  of  Earth 

A  Youth  to  Fortune  aiid  to  Fame  unknown.  ''' 

Fair  Science  frown^ d  not  on  his  humble  birth, 

And  Melancholy  marked  him  for  her  own.  120 


A   LONG  STORY.  21 

Large  was  his  bounty^  and  his  soul  sincere^ 

Heaven  did  a  recoi7ipe?ice  as  largely  send: 
He  gave  to  Misery  all  he  had,  a  tear, 

He  gain^ d  from  Heav'n  (^twas  all  he  wished)  a  friend. 

No  farther  seek  his  merits  to  disclose,  125 

Or  draw  his  frailties  f'om  their  dread  abode, 

{There  they  alike  ifi  trembling  hope  7-epose,y 
The  bosom  of  his  Father  and  his  God, 


VIII. 
A   LONG    STORY. 

In  Britain's  Isle,  no  matter  where, 

An  ancient  pile  of  building  stands  : 
The  Huntingdons  and  Hattons  there 

Employ'd  the  power  of  Fairy  hands 

To  raise  the  cieling's  fretted  height,  5 

Each  pannel  in  achievements  cloathing, 

Rich  windows  that  exclude  the  light, 
And  passages,  that  lead  to  nothing. 

Full  oft  within  the  spatious  walls. 

When  he  had  fifty  winters  o'er  him,  10 

My  grave  ^  Lord- Keeper  led  the  Brawls  : 

The  Seal,  and  Maces,  danc'd  before  him. 

His  bushy  beard,  and  shoe-strings  green, 
'    His  high-crown'd  hat,  and  sattin-doublet, 
Mov'd  the  stout  heart  of  England's  Queen,  15 

Tho'  Pope  and  Spaniard  could  not  trouble  it. 

^ paventosa  speme. 

Petrarch.  Son.  114. 
2  Hatton,  prefer'd    by  Queen  Elizabeth   for   his   graceful    Person 
and  fine  Dancing. 


2  2  POEMS. 

What,  in  the  very  first  beginning  ! 

Shame  of  the  versifying  tribe  ! 
Your  Hist'ry  whither  are  you  spinning? 

Can  you  do  nothing  but  describe  ?  20 

A  House  there  is,  (and  that's  enough) 
From  whence  one  fatal  morning  issues 

A  brace  of  Warriors,  not  in  buff. 

But  rusthng  in  their  silks  and  tissues. 

The  first  came  cap-a-pee  from  France,  25 

Her  conqu'ring  destiny  fulfilling, 
Whom  meaner  Beauties  eye  askance, 

And  vainly  ape  her  art  of  killing. 

The  other  Amazon  kind  Heaven 

Had  arm'd  with  spirit,  wit,  and  satire  :  30 

But  CoBHAM  had  the  polish  given, 

And  tip'd  her  arrows  with  good-nature. 

To  celebrate  her  eyes,  her  air 

Coarse  panegyricks  would  but  teaze  her. 

Melissa  is  her  Nom  de  Guerre.  35 

Alas,  who  would  not  wish  to  please  her  ! 

With  bonnet  blue  and  capucine, 

And  aprons  long  they  hid  their  armour, 

And  veil'd  their  weapons  bright  and  keen 

In  pity  to  the  country-farmer.  40 

Fame  in  the  shape  of  Mr.  P 1 


(By  this  time  all  the  Parish  know  it) 
Had  told,  that  thereabouts  there  lurk'd 
A  wicked  Imp  they  call  a  Poet, 


A    LONG   STORY.  23 

Who  prowl'd  the  country  far  and  near,  4S 

Bewitch'd  the  children  of  the  peasants, 
Dried  up  the  cows,  and  lam'd  the  deer, 

And  suck'd  the  eggs,  and  kill'd  the  pheasants. 

My  Lady  heard  their  joint  petition, 

Swore  by  her  coronet  and  ermine,  50 

She'd  issue  out  her  high  commission 

To  rid  the  manour  of  such  vermin. 

The  Heroines  undertook  the  task. 

Thro'  lanes  unknown,  o'er  stiles  they  ventur'd, 
Rap'd  at  the  door,  nor  stay'd  to  ask,  55 

But  bounce  into  the  parlour  enter'd. 

The  trembling  family  they  daunt, 

They  flirt,  they  sing,  they  laugh,  they  tattle, 

Rummage  his  Mother,  pinch  his  Aunt, 

And  up  stairs  in  a  whirlwind  rattle.  60 

Each  hole  and  cupboard  they  explore, 
Each  creek  and  cranny  of  his  chamber, 

Run  hurry-skurry  round  the  floor. 
And  o'er  the  bed  and  tester  clamber, 

Into  the  Drawers  and  China  pry,  65 

Papers  and  books,  a  huge  Imbroglio  ! 
Under  a  tea-cup  he  might  lie. 

Or  creased,  like  dogs-ears,  in  a  folio. 

On  the  first  marching  of  the  troops 

The  Muses,  hopeless  of  his  pardon,  7° 

Convey'd  him  underneath  their  hoops 

To  a  small  closet  in  the  garden. 


2  4  POEMS. 

So  Rumor  says.     (Who  will,  believe.) 

But  that  they  left  the  door  a-jarr, 
Where,  safe  and  laughing  in  his  sleeve,  75 

He  heard  the  distant  din  of  war. 

Short  was  his  joy.     He  little  knew, 
The  power  of  Magick  was  no  fable. 

Out  of  the  window,  whisk,  they  flew, 

But  left  a  spell  upon  the  table.  So 

The  words  too  eager  to  unriddle 

The  Poet  felt  a  strange  disorder : 
Transparent  birdlime  form'd  the  middle, 

And  chains  invisible  the  border. 

So  cunning  was  the  Apparatus,  85 

The  powerful  pothooks  did  so  move  him. 

That,  will  he,  nill  he,  to  the  Great-house 
He  went,  as  if  the  Devil  drove  him. 

Yet  on  his  way  (no  sign  of  grace, 

For  folks  in  fear  are  apt  to  pray)  90 

To  Phoebus  he  prefer'd  his  case, 

And  beg'd  his  aid  that  dreadful  day. 

The  Godhead  would  have  back'd  his  quarrel. 

But  with  a  blush  on  recollection 
Own'd,  that  his  quiver  and  his  laurel  95 

'Gainst  four  such  eyes  were  no  protection. 

The  Court  was  sate,  the  Culprit  there, 

Forth  from  their  gloomy  mansions  creeping 

The  Lady  yiz/z^-f  2.riA  Joans  repair. 

And  from  the  gallery  stand  peeping :  100 


A   LONG  STORY.  25 

Such  as  in  silence  of  the  night 

Come  (sweep)  along  some  winding  entry 

(^Styack  ^  has  often  seen  the  sight) 
Or  at  the  chappel-door  stand  sentry  ; 

In  peaked  hoods  and  mantles  tarnish'd,  105 

Sour  visages,  enough  to  scare  ye, 
High  Dames  of  honour  once,  that  garnish'd 

The  drawing-room  of  fierce  Queen  Mary  ! 

The  Peeress  comes.     The  Audience  stare. 

And  doff  their  hats  with  due  submission  ;  no 

She  curtsies,  as  she  takes  her  chair, 
To  all  the  People  of  condition. 

The  Bard  with  many  an  artful  fib, 

Had  i#  imagination  fenc'd  him, 
Disproved  the  arguments  of  Squib^  115 

And  all  that  Groo7?i  ^  could  urge  against  him. 

But  soon  his  rhetorick  forsook  him, 

When  he  the  solemn  hall  had  seen ; 
A  sudden  fit  of  ague  shook  him. 

He  stood  as  mute  as  poor  Maclea7ie}  120 

Yet  something  he  was  heard  to  mutter, 

'  How  in  the  park  beneath  an  old-tree 
'  (Without  design  to  hurt  the  butter, 

'  Or  any  malice  to  the  poultry,) 

*  He  once  or  twice  had  pen'd  a  sonnet  ;  125 

'  Yet  hoped,  that  he  might  save  his  bacon  : 

'  Numbers  would  give  their  oaths  upon  it, 
'  He  ne'er  was  for  a  conj'rer  taken. 

1  The  House-Keeper. 

2  Groom  of  the  Chambers. 
^  The  Steward. 

4  A  famous  Highwayman  hang'd  the  week  before. 


26  POEMS. 

The  ghostly  Prudes  with  hagged  face 

Already  had  condemn'd  the  sinner.  130 

My  Lady  rose,  and  with  a  grace 

She  smiled,  and  bid  him  come  to  dinner. 

'  Jesu-Maria  !   Madam  Bridget, 

'  Why,  what  can  the  Vicountess  mean  ? 
(Cried  the  square  Hoods  in  woful  fidget)  135 

*  The  times  are  alter'd  quite  and  clean  ! 

'  Decorum's  turn'd  to  mere  civility  ; 

'  Her  air  and  all  her  manners  shew  it. 
*  Commend  me  to  her  affability  ! 

*  Speak  to  a  Commoner  and  Poet  !  140 

[Here  500  Stanzas  are  lost.\ 

And  SO  God  save  our  noble  King, 

And  guard  us  from  long-winded  Lubbers, 

That  to  eternity  would  sing. 

And  keep  my  Lady  from  her  Rubbers. 


y    IX. 

THE    PROGRESS    OF   POESY. 

A    PINDARIC    ODE. 
^djvdvTa  <TVV€TO?<Tiv  '   is 

Pindar,  Olymp.  II. 

ADVERTISEMENT. 

When  the  Author  first  published  this  and  the  following  Ode,  he 
was  advised,  even  by  his  Friends,  to  subjoin  some  few  explanatory 
Notes ;  but  had  too  much  respect  for  the  understanding  of  his 
Readers  to  take  that  liberty. 


THE   PROGRESS   OF  POESY.  27 

I.  I. 

Awake,  ^Eolian  lyre,  awake, ^  ^ 

And  give  to  rapture  all  thy  trembling  strings.     L. 
From  Helicon's  harmonious  springs  t» 

A  thousand  rills  their  mazy  progress  take  :     ^ 
The  laughing  flowers,  that  round  them  blow,  C  5 

Drink  life  and  fragrance  as  they  flow.  ^ 

Now  the  rich  stream  of  music  winds  along     JL, 
Deep,  majestic,  smooth,  and  strong,  ^ 

Thro'  verdant  vales,  and  Ceres'  golden  reign  :<. 
Now  rowling  down  the  steep  amain,    jL'  10 

Headlong,  impetuous,  see  it  pour  :       ^ 
The  rocks,  and  nodding  groves  rebellow  to  the  roar.  /' 

I.  2. 

Oh  !   Sovereign  of  the  willing  soul,^  ^ 

Parent  of  sweet  and  solemn-breathing  airs,   L 
Enchanting  shell  !  the  sullen  Cares,  ^  15 

And  frantic  Passions  hear  thy  soft  controul.  0^ 
On  Thracia's  hills  the  Lord  of  War,     C 
Has  curb'd  the  fury  of  his  car,  c 

1  Awake,  my  glory  :  awake,  lute  and  harp. 

David'' s  Psalms. 

Pindar  styles  his  own  poetry,  with  its  musical  accompanyments, 
AioXrjh  yuoXTTTj,  At'oXtSes  ^opSai,  Aio\L8u}v  ttvooI  duXcDv,  ^olian  song, 
^Eolian  strings,  the  breath  of  the  vEolian  flute. 

The  subject  and  simile,  as  usual  with  Pindar,  are  united.  The 
various  sources  of  poetry,  which  gives  life  and  lustre  to  all  it  touches, 
are  here  described ;  its  quiet  majestic  progress  enriching  every 
subject  (otherwise  dry  and  barren)  with  a  pomp  of  diction  and 
luxuriant  harmony  of  numbers;  and  its  more  rapid  and  irresistible 
course,  when  swoln  and  hurried  away  by  the  conflict  of  tumultuous 
passions. 

2  Power  of  harmony  to  calm  the  turbulent  sallies  of  the  soul.  The 
thoughts  are  borrowed  from  the  first  Pythian  of  Pindar. 


28  POEMS. 

And  drop'd  his  thirsty  lance  at  thy  command.    ^ 

Perching  on  the  scept'red  hand  '^         i.  20 

Of  Jove,  thy  magic  lulls  the  feather'd  king  jl 

With  rufifled  plumes,  and  flagging  wing  :   jl 

Quench'd  in  dark  clouds  of  slumber  lie        / 

The  terror  of  his  beak,  and  light'nings  of  his  eye.  /, 

I-  3- 

Thee  the  voice,  the  dance,  obey,^  25 

Temper'd  to  thy  warbled  lay. 

O'er  Idalia's  velvet-green 

The  rosy-crowned  Loves  are  seen 

On  Cytherea's  day 

With  antic  Sports,  and  blue-eyed  Pleasures,  30 

Frisking  light  in  frolic  measures  ; 

Now  pursuing,  now  retreating. 

Now  in  circling  troops  they  meet : 

To  brisk  notes  in  cadence  beating 

Glance  their  many-twinkling  feet.^  35 

Slow  melting  strains  their  Queen's  approach  declare  : 

Where'er  she  turns  the  Graces  homage  pay. 
With  arms  sublime,  that  float  upon  the  air, 

In  gliding  state  she  wins  her  easy  way  : 
O'er  her  warm  cheek,  and  rising  bosom,  move  40 

The   bloom   of   young   Desire,   and   purple   light   of 
Love.* 

1  This  is  a  weak  imitation  of  some  incomparable  lines  in  the  same 
Ode. 

2  Power  of  harmony  to  produce  all  the  graces  of  motion  in  the 
body. 

^  Ma/3/iapy7as  OrjeTro  irobCjv  •  davfxa^e  dk  dvfxtp. 

Homer.     Oc/.  Q. 
*  AdfJLTreL  5*  iirl  Trop(l)vpdr}<rc 

UapeirjaL  (pCos  epwros. 

Phrynichus,  apud  Athenaeum. 


TflE  PROGRESS   OF  POESY.  29 

11.  I. 

Man's  feeble  race  what  Ills  await,^ 
Labour,  and  Penury,  the  racks  of  Pain,  -^^- 

Disease,  and  Sorrow's  weeping  train. 
And  Death,  sad  refuge  from  the  storms  of  Fate  !         45 
The  fond  complaint,  my  Song,  disprove, 
And  justify  the  laws  of  Jove. 
Say,  has  he  giv'n  in  vain  the  heav'nly  Muse  ? 
Night,  and  all  her  sickly  dews, 

Her  Spectres  wan,  and  Birds  of  boding  cry,  5° 

He  gives  to  range  the  dreary  sky  : 
Till  down  the  eastern  cliffs  afar  ^ 
Hyperion's  march  they  spy,  and  glitt'ring  shafts  of 
war. 

II.  2. 

In  ^  climes  beyond  the  solar  *  road. 
Where  shaggy  forms  o'er  ice-built  mountains  roam,     55 
The  Muse  has  broke  the  twilight-gloom 
To  chear  the  shiv'ring  Native's  dull  abode. 

1  To  compensate  the  real  and  imaginary  ills  of  life,  the  Muse  was 
given  to  Mankind  by  the  same  Providence  that  sends  the  Day  by  its 
chearful  presence  to  dispel  the  gloom  and  terrors  of  the  Night. 

2  Or  seen  the  Morning's  well-appointed  Star 
Come  marching  up  the  eastern  hills  afar. 

Cowley. 

3  Extensive  influence  of  poetic  Genius  over  the  remotest  and  most 
uncivilized  nations  :  its  connection  with  liberty,  and  the  virtues  that 
naturally  attend  on  it.  (See  the  Erse,  Norwegian,  and  Welch  Frag- 
ments, the  Lapland  and  American  songs.) 

^  "  Extra  anni  solisque  vias." 

Virgil. 

"Tutta  lontana  dal  camin  del  sole." 

Petrarch,  Canzon  2. 


30  POEMS. 

And  oft,  beneath  the  od'rous  shade 

Of  ChiU's  boundless  forests  laid, 

She  deigns  to  hear  the  savage  Youth  repeat  60 

In  loose  numbers  wildly  sweet 

Their  feather-cinctured  Chiefs,  and  dusky  Loves. 

Her  track,  where'er  the  Goddess  roves. 

Glory  pursue,  and  generous  Shame, 

Th'  unconquerable  Mind,  and  Freedom's  holy  flame.  65 

II.  3. 

Woods,  that  wave  o'er  Delphi's  steep,^ 
Isles,  that  crown  th'  ^gean  deep. 
Fields,  that  cool  Ilissus  laves. 
Or  where  Maeander's  amber  waves 
;^  :.^-  '  '^     In  lingering  Lab'rinths  creep,  70 

How  do  your  tuneful  Echo's  languish, 
Mute,  but  to  the  voice  of  Anguish? 
Where  each  old  poetic  Mountain 
Inspiration  breath'd  around  : 

Ev'ry  shade  and  hallo w'd  Fountain  75 

Murmur'd  deep  a  solemn  sound  : 
Till  the  sad  Nine  in  Greece's  evil  hour 
Left  their  Parnassus  for  the  Latian  plains. 
Alike  they  scorn  the  pomp  of  tyrant-Power, 
And  coward  Vice,  that  revels  in  her  chains.  80 

When  Latium  had  her  lofty  spirit  lost. 
They  sought,  oh  Albion  !  next  thy  sea-encircled  coast. 

^  Progress  of  Poetry  from  Greece  to  Italy,  and  from  Italy  to 
England.  Chaucer  -was  not  unacquainted  with  the  writings  of 
Dante  or  of  Petrarch.  The  Earl  of  Surrey  and  Sir  Tho.  Wyatt 
had  travelled  in  Italy,  and  formed  their  taste  there ;  Spenser 
imitated  the  Italian  writers;  Milton  improved  on  them:  but  this 
School  expired  soon  after  the  Restoration,  and  a  new  one  arose  on 
the  French  model,  which  has  subsisted  ever  since. 


THE  PROGRESS   OF  POESY,  31 

III.  I. 

Far  from  the  sun  and  summer-gale, 
In  thy  green  lap  was  Nature's  ^  Darling  laid, 
What  time,  where  lucid  Avon  stray'd,  85 

To  Him  the  mighty  Mother  did  unveil 
Her  aweful  face  :  The  dauntless  Child 
Stretch'd  forth  his  little  arms,  and  smiled. 
This  pencil  take  (she  said)  whose  colours  clear 
Richly  paint  the  vernal  year  :  9° 

Thine  too  these  golden  keys,  immortal  Boy ! 
This  can  unlock  the  gates  of  Joy  ; 
Of  Horrour  that,  and  thrilling  Fears, 
Or  ope  the  sacred  source  of  sympathetic  Tears. 

III.  2. 

Nor  second  He,^  that  rode  sublime  95 

Upon  the  seraph-wings  of  Extasy, 
The  secrets  of  th'  Abyss  to  spy. 
He  pass'd  the  flaming  bounds  of  Place  and  Time  :  ^ 
The  living  Throne,  the  saphire-blaze,'* 
Where  Angels  tremble,  while  they  gaze,  100 

He  saw  ;  but  blasted  with  excess  of  light, 
Closed  his  eyes  in  endless  night." 

1  Shakespear. 

2  Milton. 

^  " flammantia  moenia  mundi." 

Liuretuis . 

*  For  the  spirit  of  the  living  creature  was  in  the  wheels.  —  And 
above  the  firmament,  that  was  over  their  heads,  was  the  likeness  of 
a  throne,  as  the  appearance  of  a  saphire-stone.  —  This  was  the 
appearance  of  the  glory  of  the  Lord.  —  Ezekiel  i.  20,  26,  28. 

^  ' 0(t>dakfJ.C)v  fxkv  d/xepcre  •    5i8ov  5'  r^beLav  aoL^riv. 

Homer.     Od. 


32  POEMS. 

Behold,  where  Dryden's  less  presumptuous  car, 
Wide  o'er  the  fields  of  Glory  bear 

Two  Coursers  of  ethereal  race,^  105 

With  necks  in  thunder  cloath'd,  and  long-resounding 
pace.^ 

III.  3. 

Hark,  his  hands  the  lyre  explore  ! 
Bright-eyed  Fancy  hovering  o'er 
Scatters  from  her  pictur'd  urn 

Thoughts,  that  breath,  and  words,  that  burn.^  no 

But  ah  !   'tis  heard  no  more  ^ 

Oh  !  Lyre  divine,  what  daring  Spirit 

Wakes  thee  now?  tho'  he  inherit 

Nor  the  pride,  nor  ample  pinion, 

That  the  Theban  Eagle  bear^  115 

Sailing  with  supreme  dominion 

Thro'  the  azure  deep  of  air  : 

1  Meant  to  express  the  stately  march  and  sounding  energy  of 
Dryden's  rhimes. 

2  Hast  thou  cloathed  his  neck  with  thunder? 

Job. 

2  Words,  that  weep,  and  tears,  that  speak. 

Cowley. 

*  We  have  had  in  our  language  no  other  odes  of  the  sublime  kind, 
than  that  of  Dryden  on  St.  Cecilia's  day  :  for  Cowley  (who  had  his 
merit)  yet  wanted  judgment,  style,  and  harmony,  for  such  a  task. 
That  of  Pope  is  not  worthy  of  so  great  a  man.  Mr.  Mason  indeed 
of  late  days  has  touched  the  true  chords,  and  with  a  masterly  hand, 
in  some  of  his  Choruses,  —  above  all  in  the  last  of  Caractacus, 

Hark !  heard  ye  not  yon  footstep  dread  ?  etc. 

^  Aids  wpos  dpvtxo- 0e^op.  Olymp.  2.  Pindar  compares  himself  to  that 
bird,  and  his  enemies  to  ravens  that  croak  and  clamour  in  vain 
below,  while  it  pursues  its  flight,  regardless  of  their  noise. 


ODE   ON   VICISSITUDE.      '  33 

Yet  oft  before  his  infant  eyes  would  run 

Such  forms,  as  glitter  in  the  Muse's  ray 

With  orient  hues,  unborrow'd  of  the  Sun  :  120 

Yet  shall  he  mount,  and  keep  his  distant  way 

Beyond  the  limits  of  a  vulgar  fate, 

Beneath  the  Good  how  far — but  far  above  the  Great. 


( 


X. 

ODE    ON   THE    PLEASURE  ARISING  FROM  VICISSITUDE. 

Now  the  golden  Morn  aloft 

Waves  her  dew-bespangled  wing, 
With  vermeil-cheek  and  whisper  soft 

She  woo's  the  tardy  spring ; 
Till  April  starts,  and  calls  around  5 

The  sleeping  fragrance  from  the  ground ; 
And  lightly  o'er  the  living  scene 
Scatters  his  freshest,  tenderest  green. 

New-born  flocks,  in  rustic  dance, 

Frisking  ply  their  feeble  feet ;  ^o 

Forgetful  of  their  wintry  trance. 

The  Birds  his  presence  greet ; 
But  chief,  the  Sky-lark  warbles  high 
His  trembling  thrilling  ecstasy ; 
And,  lessening  from  the  dazzled  sight,  15 

Melts  into  air  and  liquid  light. 

Rise,  my  soul!  on  wings  of  fire. 

Rise  the  raphirous  choir  among ; 
Hark  !  'tis  Naturb^trikes  the  lyre. 

And  leads  the  general  song.  20 


34  POEMS. 

Yesterday  the  sullen  year 

Saw  the  snowy  whirlwind  fly  ; 
Mute  was  the  musick  of  the  air, 

The  Herd  stood  drooping  by ; 
Their  raptures  now  that  wildly  flow,  '   25 

No  yesterday,  nor  morrow  know ; 
'Tis  man  alone  that  Joy  descries 
With  forward  and  reverted  eyes. 

Smiles  on  past  Misfortune's  brow 

Soft  Reflection's  hand  can  trace ;  3° 

And  o'er  the  cheek  of  Sorrow  throw 

A  melancholy  grace  ; 
While  Hope  prolongs  our  happier  hour. 
Or  deepest  shades,  that  dimly  lower 
And  blacken  round  our  weary  way,  35 

Gilds  with  a  gleam  of  distant  day. 

Still,  where  rosy  Pleasure  leads, 

See  a  kindred  Grief  pursue  ; 
Behind  the  steps  that  Misery  treads, 

Approaching  Comfort  view  ;  40 

The  hues  of  Bliss  more  brightly  glow. 
Chastised  by  sabler  tints  of  woe  ; 
And  blended  form,  with  artful  strife, 
The  strength  and  harmony  of  Life. 

See  the  Wretch,  that  long  has  tost  45 

On  the  thorny  bed  of  Pain, 
At  length  repair  his  vigour  lost, 

And  breathe  and  walk  again  ; 
The  meanest  flowret  of  the  vale, 
The  simplest  note  that  swells  the  gale,  5° 

The  common  Sun,  the  air,  the  skies. 
To  him  are  opening  Paradise. 


THE  BARD,  35 

Humble  Quiet  builds  her  cell, 

Near  the  source  whence  Pleasure  flows  ; 
She  eyes  the  clear  chrystalline  well,  55 

'x^         And  tastes  it  as  it  goes. 


X  XI. 

THE   BARD. 

A    PINDARIC    ODE. 
ADVERTISEMENT. 


The  following  Ode  is  founded  on  a  Tradition  current  in  Wales, 
that  EDWARD  the  First,  when  he  compleated  the  conquest  of 
that  country,  ordered  all  the  Bards,  that  fell  into  his  hands,  to  be 
put  to  death. 

I.  I. 

*  Ruin  seize  thee,  ruthless  King  ! 

*  Confusion  on  thy  banners  wait, 

'  Tho'  fann'd  by  Conquest's  crimson  wing 

'  They  mock  the  air  with  idle  state. -^ 

'  Helm,  nor  Hauberk's  ^  twisted  mail,  5 

'  Nor  even  thy  virtues,  Tyrant,  shall  avail 

'  To  save  thy  secret  soul  from  nightly  fears, 

*  From  Cambria's  curse,  from  Cambria's  tears  ! ' 
Such  were  the  sounds,  that  o'er  the  crested  ^  pride 

Of  the  first  Edward  scatter'd  wild  dismay,  lo 

1  Mocking  the  air  with  colours  idly  spread. 

Shakespear^ s  Kmg  John. 

2  The  Hauberk  was  a  texture  of  steel  ringlets,  or  rings  interwoven, 
forming  a  coat  of  mail,  that  sate  close  to  the  body,  and  adapted 
itself  to  every  motion. 

3  The  crested  adder's  pride. 

Dryden^s  Indian  Queen. 


36  POEMS. 

As  down  the  steep  of  Snowdon's  ^  shaggy  side 
He  wound  with  toilsome  march  his  long  array. 
Stout  Glo'ster  '-^  stood  aghast  in  speechless  trance  : 
To  arms  !  cried  Mortimer,^  and  couch'd  his  quiv'ring 
lance. 


I.   2.      '' 

On  a  rock,  whose  haughty  brow  15 

Frowns  o'er  old  Conway's  foaming  flood, 
Robed  in  the  sable  garb  of  woe, 
With  haggard  eyes  the  Poet  stood  ; 
(Loose  his  beard,  and  hoary  hair* 
Stream'd,  like  a  meteor,  to  the  troubled  air)  ^       -     20 
And  with  a  Master's  hand,  and  Prophet's  fire, 
Struck  the  deep  sorrows  of  his  lyre. 

1  Snowdon  was  a  name  given  by  the  Saxons  to  that  mountainous 
tract,  which  the  Welch  themselves  call  Craigian-eryri :  it  included 
all  the  highlands  of  Caernarvonshire  and  Merionethshire,  as  far  east 
as  the  river  Conway.  R.  Hygden  speaking  of  the  castle  of  Conway 
built  by  King  Edward  the  first,  says,  "  Ad  ortum  amnis  Conway  ad 
clivum  montis  Erery "  ;  and  Matthew  of  Westminster,  (ad  ann. 
1283),  "  Apud  Aberconway  ad  pedes  montis  Snowdoniag  fecit  erigi 
castrum  forte." 

2  Gilbert  de  Clare,  surnamed  the  Red,  Earl  of  Gloucester  and 
Hertford,  son-in-law  to  King  Edward. 

3  Edmond  de  Mortimer,  Lord  of  Wigmore. 

They  both  were  Lords-Marchers,  whose  lands  lay  on  the  borders 
of  Wales,  and  probably  accompanied  the  king  in  this  expedition. 

*  The  image  was  taken  from  a  well-known  picture  of  Raphael, 
representing  the  Supreme  Being  in  the  vision  of  Ezekiel  :  there  ar^ 
two  of  these  paintings  (both  believed  original),  one  at  Florence,  the 
other  at  Paris. 

^  Shone,  like  a  meteor,  streaming  to  the  wind. 

Milton'' s  Paradise  Lost. 


THE  BARD,  37 

*  Hark,  how  each  giant-oak,  and  desert  cave, 

'  Sighs  to  the  torrent's  aweful  voice  beneath  ! 

*  O'er  thee,  oh  King  !  their  hundred  arms  they  wave,      25 

*  Revenge  on  thee  in  hoarser  murmurs  breath  ; 

*  Vocal  no  more,  since  Cambria's  fatal  day, 

*  To  high-born  Hoel's  harp,  or  soft  Llewellyn's  lay. 


1.3. 

*  Cold  is  Cadwallo's  tongue, 

*  That  hush'd  the  stormy  main  :  3° 

*  Brave  Urien  sleeps  upon  his  craggy  bed  : 

*  Mountains,  ye  mourn  in  vain 

*  Modred,  whose  magic  song 

*  Made  huge  Plinlimmon  bow  his  cloud-top'd  head. 

*0n  dreary  Arvon's  shore  they  lie,^  35 

*  Smear'd  with  gore,  and  ghastly  pale  : 

*  Far,  far  aloof  th'  affrighted  ravens  sail  ; 
•The  famish'd  Eagle ^  screams,  and  passes  by. 

*  Dear  lost  companions  of  my  tuneful  art, 

*  Dear,  as  the  light  that  visits  these  sad  eyes,  ^  40 

*  Dear,  as  the  ruddy  drops  that  warm  my  heart,^ 

*  Ye  died  amidst  your  dying  country's  cries  — 
'  No  more  I  weep.     They  do  not  sleep. 

1  The  shores  of  Caernarvonshire  opposite  to  the  isle  of  Anglesey. 

2  Cambden  and  others  observe,  that  eagles  used  annually  to  build 
their  aerie  among  the  rocks  of  Snowdon,  which  from  thence  (as 
some  think)  were  named  by  the  Welch  Craigian-eryri^  or  the  crags 
of  the  eagles.  At  this  day  (I  am  told)  the  highest  point  of  Snowdon 
is  called  the  eagle's  nest.  That  bird  is  certainly  no  stranger  to  this 
island,  as  the  Scots,  and  the  people  of  Cumberland,  Westmoreland, 
etc.  can  testify :  it  even  has  built  its  nest  in  the  Peak  of  Derbyshire. 
(See  Willoughby's  Ornithol.  published  by  Ray.) 

2  As  dear  to  me  as  are  the  ruddy  drops. 
That  visit  my  sad  heart.  —  Shakesp.  Jul.  CcBsar. 


38  POEMS, 

'  On  yonder  cliffs,  a  griesly  band, 

•'  I  see  them  sit,  they  linger  yet,  45 

'  Avengers  of  their  native  land  : 

'With  me  in  dreadful  harmony  they  join,' 

*  And  weave  ^  with  bloody  hands  the  tissue  of  thy  line. 

II.  I. 

"  Weave  the  warp,  and  weave  the  woof, 
"  The  winding-sheet  of  Edward's  race.  50 

"  Give  ample  room,  and  verge  enough 
"  The  characters  of  hell  to  trace. 
"  Mark  the  year,  and  mark  the  night, 
"When  Severn  shall  re-eccho  with  affright^ 
"  The  shrieks  of  death,  thro'  Berkley's  roofs  that  ring,        55 
"  Shrieks  of  an  agonizing  King  ! 
"  She-Wolf  ^  of  France,  with  unrelenting  fangs, 
"  That  tear'st  the  bowels  of  thy  mangled  Mate, 
"  From  thee  be  born,  who  o'er  thy  country  hangs  * 
"  The  scourge  of  Heav'n.    What  Terrors  round  him  wait !  60 
"  Amazement  in  his  van,  with  Flight  combined, 
"  And  sorrow's  faded  form,  and  solitude  behind. 

II.  2. 

"  Mighty  Victor,  mighty  Lord, 
"  Low  on  his  funeral  couch  he  lies  !  ® 
"  No  pitying  heart,  no  eye,  afford  65 

"  A  tear  to  grace  his  obsequies. 

1  See  the  Norwegian  Ode,  that  follows. 

2  Edward  the  Second,  cruelly  butchered  in  Berkley-Castle. 

3  Isabel  of  France,  Edward  the  Second's  adulterous  Queen. 
^  Triumphs  of  Edward  the  Third  in  France. 

5  Death    of   that    King,    abandoned    by   his    Children,    and    even 
robbed  in  his  last  moments  by  his  Courtiers  and  his  Mistress. 


THE  BARD.  39 

"  Is  the  sable  Warriour  ^  fled  ? 

"  Thy  son  is  gone.     He  rests  among  the  Dead. 

"  The  Swarm,  that  in  thy  noon-tide  beam  were  born  > 

"  Gone  to  salute  the  rising  Morn.  7° 

"  Fair  laughs  ^  the  Morn,  and  soft  the  Zephyr  blows, 

"  While  proudly  riding  o'er  the  azure  realm 

"  In  gallant  trim  the  gilded  Vessel  goes  ; 

*'  Youth  on  the  prow,  and  Pleasure  at  the  helm  ; 

"  Regardless  of  the  sweeping  Whirlwind's  sway,  75 

"  That,  hush'd  in  grim  repose,  expects  his  evening-prey. 

II.  3. 

"  Fill  high  the  sparkling  bowl,^ 
"  The  rich  repast  prepare, 
"  Reft  of  a  crown,  he  yet  may  share  the  feast : 
"  Close  by  the  regal  chair  80 

"  Fell  Thirst  and  Famine  scowl 
"  A  baleful  smile  upon  their  baffled  Guest. 
"  Heard  ye  the  din  of  battle  ^  bray, 
"  Lance  to  lance,  and  horse  to  horse  ? 

"  Long  Years  of  havock  urge  their  destined  course,  85 

"  And  thro'  the  kindred  squadrons  mow  their  way. 
"  Ye  Towers  of  Julius,^  London's  lasting  shame, 
"  With  many  a  foul  and  midnight  murther  fed, 

^  Edward,  the  Black  Prince,  dead  some  time  before  his  Father. 

2  Magnificence  of  Richard  the  Second's  reign.  See  Froissard,  and 
other  contemporary  Writers. 

3  Richard  the  Second,  (as  we  are  told  by  Archbishop  Scroop  and 
the  confederate  Lords  in  their  manifesto,  by  Thomas  of  Walsing- 
ham,  and  all  the  older  Writers,)  was  starved  to  death.  The  story  of 
his  assassination  by  Sir  Piers  of  Exon,  is  of  much  later  date. 

*  Ruinous  civil  wars  of  York  and  Lancaster. 

5  Henry  the  Sixth,  George  Duke  of  Clarence,  Edward  the  Fifth, 
Richard  Duke  of  York,  etc.  believed  to  be  murthered  secretly  in 
the  Tower  of  London.  The  oldest  part  of  that  structure  is  vulgarly 
attributed  to  Julius  Caesar. 


40  POEMS. 

"  Revere  his  Consort's  ^  faith,  his  Father's  ^  fame, 

"  And  spare  the  meek  Usurper's  ^  holy  head.  90 

"  Above,  below,  the  rose  ^  of  snow, 

"  Twined  with  her  blushing  foe,  we  spread  : 

"  The  bristled  Boar  ^  in  infant-gore 

*' Wallows  beneath  the  thorny  shade. 

"  Now,  Brothers,  bending  o'er  th'  accursed  loom  95 

"  Stamp  we  our  vengeance  deep,  and  ratify  his  doom. 


III.  I. 

"  Edward,  lo  !  to  sudden  fate 
"  (Weave  we  the  woof.     The  thread  is  spun) 
"  Half  of  thy  heart  we  consecrate.^ 
"  (The  web  is  wove.     The  work  is  done.)  "  100 

'  Stay,  oh  stay  !  nor  thus  forlorn 

*  Leave  me  unbless'd,  unpitied,  here  to  mourn  : 

*  In  yon  bright  track,  that  fires  the  western  skies, 

*  They  melt,  they  vanish  from  my  eyes. 

'  But  oh  !  what  solemn  scenes  on  Snowdon's  height  105 
'  Descending  slow  their  glitt'ring  skirts  unroll  ? 

1  Margaret  of  Anjou,  a  woman  of  heroic  spirit,  who  struggled  hard 
to  save  her  Husband  and  her  Crown. 

2  Henry  the  Fifth. 

3  Henry  the  Sixth  very  near  being  canonized.  The  line  of  Lan- 
caster had  no  right  of  inheritance  to  the  CrowTi. 

^  The  white  and  red  roses,  devices  of  York  and  Lancaster. 

°  The  silver  Boar  was  the  badge  of  Richard  the  Third  ;  whence  he 
was  usually  known  in  his  own  time  by  the  name  of  the  Boar. 

^  Eleanor  of  Castile  died  a  few  years  after  the  conquest  of  Wales. 
The  heroic  proof  she  gave  of  her  affection  for  her  Lord  is  well 
known.  The  monuments  of  his  regret,  and  sorrow  for  the  loss  of 
her,  are  still  to  be  seen  at  Northampton,  Geddington,  Waltham,  and 
other  places. 


THE   BARD.  41 

'  Visions  of  glory,  spare  my  aching  sight, 

*  Ye  unborn  Ages,  crowd  not  on  my  soul  ! 

'  No  more  our  long-lost  Arthur  ^  we  bewail. 

'All-hail,  ye  genuine  Kings,^  Britannia's  Issue,  hail !      no 


III.  2. 

*  Girt  with  many  a  Baron  bold 

*  Sublime  their  starry  fronts  they  rear  ; 

*  And  gorgeous  Dames,  and  Statesmen  old 

*  In  bearded  majesty,  appear. 

*In  the  midst  a  Form  divine  !  115 

*  Her  eye  proclaims  her  of  the  Briton-Line  ; 
'  Her  lyon-port,^  her  awe-commanding  face, 
'  Attemper'd  sweet  to  virgin-grace. 

*  What  strings  symphonious  tremble  in  the  air, 

'  What  strains  of  vocal  transport  round  her  play  !  12c 

'  Hear  from  the  grave,  great  Taliessin,*  hear  ; 

*  They  breathe  a  soul  to  animate  thy  clay. 

'  Bright  Rapture  calls,  and  soaring,  as  she  sings, 

*  Waves  in  the  eye  of  Heav'n  her  many-colour'd  wings. 

1  It  was  the  common  belief  of  the  Welch  nation,  that  King  Arthur 
was  still  alive  in  Fairy-Land,  and  should  return  again  to  reign  over 
Britain. 

-  Both  Merlin  and  Taliessin  had  prophesied,  that  the  Welch 
should  regain  their  sovereignty  over  this  island  ;  which  seemed  to  be 
accomplished  in  the  House  of  Tudor. 

3  Speed  relating  an  audience  given  by  Queen  Elizabeth  to  Paul 
Dzialinski,  Ambassadour  of  Poland,  says,  "  And  thus  she,  lion-like 
rising,  daunted  the  malapert  Orator  no  less  with  her  stately  port  and 
majestical  deporture,  than  Avith  the  tartnesse  of  her  princelie  checkes." 

^  Taliessin,  Chief  of  the  Bards,  flourished  in  the  Vlth  century. 
His  works  are  still  preserved,  and  his  memory  held  in  high  venera- 
tion among  his  Countrymen. 


42  POEMS. 


in.  3. 


*  The  verse  adorn  again  125 

*  Fierce  War,  and  faithful  Love,^ 

'  And  Truth  severe,  by  fairy  Fiction  drest. 

*  In  buskin'd "  measures  move 

'  Pale  Grief,  and  pleasing  Pain, 

'With  Horrour,  Tyrant  of  the  throbbing  breast.  130 

'  A  Voice,^  as  of  the  Cherub-Choir, 

'  Gales  from  blooming  Eden  bear  : 

*  And  distant  warblings  lessen  on  my  ear,* 

*  That  lost  in  long  futurity  expire. 

'  Fond  impious  Man,  think'st  thou,  yon  sanguine  cloud,  135 

*  Rais'd  by  thy  breath,  has  quench' d  the  Orb  of  day  t 

*  To-morrow  he  repairs  the  golden  flood, 
'And  warms  the. nations  with  redoubled  ray. 
'  Enough  for  me  :  With  joy  I  see 

'  The  different  doom  our  Fates  assign.  140 

'  Be  thine  Despair,  and  sceptVed  Care, 

'  To  triumph,  and  to  die,  are  mine.' 

He  spoke,  and  headlong  from  the  mountain's  height 

Deep  in  the  roaring  tide  he  plung'd  to  endless  night. 

1  Fierce  wars  and  faithful  loves  shall  moralize  my  song.     Spenser's 
Proeme  to  the  Fairy  Queen. 

2  Shakespear. 

3  Milton. 

*  The  succession  of  Poets  after  Milton's  time. 


HIS  OWN  CHARACTER.  43 

XII. 

SKETCH  OF  HIS  OWN  CHARACTER. 

WRITTEN    IN    1 761,    AND    FOUND     IN     ONE    OF    HIS     POCKET-BOOKS. 

Too  poor  for  a  bribe,  and  too  proud  to  importune  ; 

He  had  not  the  method  of  making  a  fortune  ; 

Could  love,  and  could  hate,  so  was  thought  somewhat 

odd  ; 
No  very  great  wit,  he  believ'd  in  a  God.  5 

A  Post  or  a  Pension  he  did  not  desire. 
But  left  Church  and  State  to  Charles  Townshend  and 

Squire. 


XIII. 

SONG. 

Thyrsis,  when  we  parted,  swore 
Ere  the  spring  he  would  return  — 

Ah !  what  means  yon  violet  flower  ! 
And  the  buds  that  deck  the  thorn  ! 

'Twas  the  Lark  that  upward  sprung !  5 

'Twas  the  Nightingale  that  sung ! 

Idle  notes  !  untimely  green  ! 

Why  this  unavailing  haste  ? 
Western  gales  and  skies  serene 

Speak  not  always  winter  past.  10 

Cease,  my  doubts,  my  fears  to  move, 
Spare  the  honour  of  my  love. 


44  POEMS. 

XIV. 
'  THE    FATAL   SISTERS. 

AN    ODE,    (FROM    THE    NORSE-TONGUE,) 

N   THE  ORCADES  of  Thormodus  ToRF^us  ;    Hafni^,   1697, 
Folio :  and  also  in  Bartholin  us. 

ViTT    ER   ORPIT   FYRIR   VALFALLI,    &C 
ADVERTISEMENT. 

The  Author  once  had  thoughts  (in  concert  with  a  Friend)  of  giving 
the  History  of  English  Poetry :  In  the  Introduction  to  it  he  meant 
to  have  produced  some  specimens  of  the  Style  that  reigned  in 
ancient  times  among  the  neighbouring  nations,  or  those  who  had 
subdued  the  greater  part  of  this  Island,  and  were  our  Progenitors  : 
the  follomng  three  Imitations  made  a  part  of  them.  He  has  long 
since  drop'd  his  design,  especially  after  he  had  heard,  that  it  was 
already  in  the  hands  of  a  Person  well  qualified  to  do  it  justice,  both 
by  his  taste,  and  his  researches  into  antiquity. 

PREFACE. 

In  the  Eleventh  Century  Sigurd,  Earl  of  the  Orkney-Islands,  went 
with  a  fleet  of  ships  and  a  considerable  body  of  troops  into  Ireland, 
to  the  assistance  of  Sictryg  with  the  silken  beard,  who  was  then 
making  war  on  his  father-in-law  Brian,  King  of  Dublin  :  the  Earl 
and  all  his  forces  were  cut  to  pieces,  and  Sictryg  was  in  danger  of  a 
total  defeat ;  but  the  enemy  had  a  greater  loss  by  the  death  of 
Brian,  their  King,  who  fell  in  action.  On  Christmas-day,  (the  day  of 
the  battle),  a  Native  of  Caithness  in  Scotland  saw  at  a  distance  a 
number  of  persons  on  horseback  riding  full  speed  towards  a  hill, 
and  seeming  to  enter  into  it.  Curiosity  led  him  to  follow  them, 
till  looking  through  an  opening  in  the  rocks  he  saw  twelve  gigantic 
figures  resembling  women  :  they  were  all  employed  about  a  loom ; 
and  as  they  wove,  they  sung  the  following  dreadful  Song;  which 
when  they  had  finished,  they  tore  the  web  into  twelve  pieces,  and 
(each  taking  her  portion)  galloped  Six  to  the  North  and  as  many 
to  the  South. 


THE   FATAL   SISTERS.  45 

Now  the  storm  begins  to  lower, 
(Haste,  the  loom  of  Hell  prepare,) 
Iron-sleet  of  arrowy  shower  ^ 
Hurtles  in  the  darken'd  air.^ 

Glitt'ring  lances  are  the  loom,  5 

Where  the  dusky  warp  we  strain, 
Weaving  many  a  Soldier's  doom, 
Orhiefs  woe,  and  Randver's  bane. 

See  the  griesly  texture  grow, 

('Tis  of  human  entrails  made,)  lo 

And  the  weights,  that  play  below, 

Each  a  gasping  Warriour's  head. 

Shafts  for  shuttles,  dipt  in  gore. 

Shoot  the  trembling  cords  along. 

Sword,  that  once  a  Monarch  bore,  15 

Keep  the  tissue  close  and  strong. 

Misia  black,  terrific  Maid, 

Sangrida,  and  Hilda  see. 

Join  the  wayward  work  to  aid : 

'Tis  the  woof  of  victory.  20 

Note.  —  The  Valkyriur  yvexQieva-aXe:  Divinities,  Servants  of  Odin 
(or  Woden)  in  the  Gothic  mythology.  Their  name  signifies  C/ncsers 
of  the  slain.  They  were  mounted  on  swift  horses,  with  dra^\^l 
swords  in  their  hands  ;  and  in  the  throng  of  battle  selected  such  as 
were  destined  to  slaughter,  and  conducted  them  to  Valkalla,  the 
hall  of  Odin,  or  paradise  of  the  Brave;  where  they  attended  the 
banquet,  and  served  the  departed  Heroes  with  horns  of  mead  and 
ale. 

1  How  quick  they  wheel'd  ;  and  flying,  behind  them  shot 

Sharp  sleet  of  arrowy  shower 

Milton^s  Par.  Regained. 

2  The  noise  of  battle  hurtled  in  the  air. 

Shakesp.  Jul.  CcBsar. 


46  POEMS. 


Ere  the  ruddy  sun  be  set, 
Pikes  must  shiver,  javelins  sing, 
Blade  with  clattering  buckler  meet, 
Hauberk  crash,  and  helmet  ring. 

(Weave  the  crimson  web  of  war)  25 

Let  us  go,  and  let  us  fly, 

Where  our  Friends  the  conflict  share. 

Where  they  triumph,  where  they  die. 

As  the  paths  of  fate  we  tread. 

Wading  thro'  th'  ensanguin'd  field  :  3° 

Go?tduIa,  and  Geira,  spread 

O'er  the  youthful  King  your  shield. 

We  the  reins  to  slaughter  give. 

Ours  to  kill,  and  ours  to  spare : 

Spite  of  danger  he  shall  live.  35 

(Weave  the  crimson  web  of  war.) 

They,  whom  once  the  desart-beach 

Pent  within  its  bleak  domain, 

Soon  their  ample  sway  shall  stretch 

O'er  the  plenty  of  the  plain.  40 

Low  the  dauntless  Earl  is  laid, 
Gor'd  with  many  a  gaping  wound : 
Fate  demands  a  nobler  head  ; 
Soon  a  King  shall  bite  the  ground. 

Long  his  loss  shall  Eirin  weep,  45 

Ne'er  again  his  likeness  see  ; 
Long  her  strains  in  sorrow  steep, 
Strains  of  Immortality  ! 


THE   DESCENT  OF  ODIN.  47 

Horror  covers  all  the  heath, 

Clouds  of  carnage  blot  the  sun.  50 

Sisters,  weave  the  web  of  death  ; 

Sisters,  cease,  the  work  is  done. 

Hail  the  task,  and  hail  the  hands  ! 

Songs  of  joy  and  triumph  sing ! 

Joy  to  the  victorious  bands  ;  55 

Triumph  to  the  younger  King. 

Mortal,  thou  that  hear'st  the  tale, 

Learn  the  tenour  of  our  song. 

Scotland,  thro'  each  winding  vale 

Far  and  wide  the  notes  prolong.  60 

Sisters,  hence  with  spurs  of  speed : 
Each  her  thundering  faulchion  wield  ; 
Each  bestride  her  sable  steed. 
Hurry,  hurry  to  the  field. 


XV. 

THE   DESCENT    OF   ODIN. 

AN    ODE,    (FROM    THE    NORSE-TONGUE,) 

In  Bartholinus,  de  causis  contemnendae  mortis ;  Hafni^e,  1689, 

Quarto. 

Upreis  Odinn  allda  gautr,  «&c. 

Uprose  the  King  of  Men  with  speed,      . 
And  saddled  strait  his  coal-black  steed ; 
Down  the  yawning  steep  he  rode, 
That  leads  to   Hela's  ^  drear  abode. 

^  Niflheimr,  the  hell  of  the  Gothic  nations,  consisted  of  nine 
worlds,  to  which  were  devoted  all  such  as  died  of  sickness,  old-age, 
or  by  any  other  means  than  in  battle:  Over  it  presided^  HELA*4h^ 
Goddess  of  Death. 


48  POEMS. 

Him  the  Dog  of  Darkness  spied,  5 

His  shaggy  throat  he  open'd  wide, 

While  from  his  jaws,  with  carnage  fill'd, 

Foam  and  human  gore  distill'd  : 

Hoarse  he  bays  with  hideous  din, 

Eyes  that  glow,  and  fangs,  that  grin  ;  lo 

And  long  pursues,  with  fruitless  yell, 

The  Father  of  the  powerful  spell. 

Onward  still  his  way  he  takes, 

(The  groaning  earth  beneath  him  shakes,) 

Till  full  before  his  fearless  eyes  15 

The  portals  nine  of  hell  arise. 

Right  against  the  eastern  gate, 
By  the  moss-grown  pile  he  sate  ; 
Where  long  of  yore  to  sleep  was  laid 
The  dust  of  the  prophetic  Maid.  20 

Facing  to  the  northern  clime. 
Thrice  he  traced  the  runic  rhyme  ; 
Thrice  pronounc'd,  in  accents  dread. 
The  thrilling  verse  that  wakes  the  Dead ; 
Till  from  out  the  hollow  ground  25 

Slowly  breath'd  a  sullen  sound. 

pR.    What  call  unknown,  what  charms  presume 
To  break  the  quiet  of  the  tomb  ?  ^t 

Who  thus  afflicts  my  troubled  sprite. 
And  drags  me  from  the  realms  of  night  ?  3° 

Long  on  these  mould'ring  bones  have  beat 
The  winter's  snow,  the  summer's  heat, 
The  drenching  dews,  the  driving  rain  ! 
Let  me,  let  me  sleep  again. 

Who  is  he,  with  voice  unblest,    '  35 

That  calls  me  from  the  bed  of  rest? 


THE  DESCENT  OF  ODIN.  49 

O.    A  Traveller,  to  thee  unknown, 
Is  he  that  calls,  a  Warriour's  Son. 
Thou  the  deeds  of  light  shalt  know  ; 
Tell  me  what  is  done  below,  4c 

For  whom  yon  glitt'ring  board  is  spread, 
Drest  for  whom  yon  golden  bed. 

Pr.    Mantling  in  the  goblet  see 
The  pure  bev'rage  of  the  bee. 

O'er  it  hangs  the  shield  of  gold  ;  45 

'Tis  the  drink  of  Balder  bold  : 
Balder' s  head  to  death  is  giv'n. 
Pain  can  reach  the  Sons  of  Heav'n  ! 
Unwilling  I  my  lips  unclose  : 
Leave  me,  leave  me  to  repose.  5° 

O.    Once  again  my  call  obey. 
Prophetess,  arise,  and  say. 
What  dangers  O dittos  Child  await, 
Who  the  Author  of  his  fate. 

Pr.    In  Hoder's  hand  the  Heroe's  doom  :  55 

His  Brother  sends  him  to  the  tomb. 
Now  my  weary  lips  I  close  : 
Leave  me,  leave  me  to  repose. 

O.    Prophetess,  my  spell  obey, 
Once  again  arise,  and  say,  6o 

Who  th'  Avenger  of  his  guilt. 
By  whom  shall  Hoder''s  blood  be  spilt. 

Pr.    In  the  caverns  of  the  west. 
By  Odin' s  fierce  embrace  comprest, 
A  wond'rous  Boy  shall  Rinda  bear,  65 

Who  ne'er  shalJ  comb  his  raven-hair, 


50  POEMS. 

Nor  wash  his  visage  in  the  stream, 

Nor  see  the  sun's  departing  beam  ; 

Till  he  on  Hoder's  corse  shall  smile 

Flaming  on  the  fun'ral  pile.  70 

Now  my  weary  lips  I  close  : 

Leave  me,  leave  me  to  repose. 

O.    Yet  a  while  my  call  obey. 
Prophetess,  awake,  and  say. 

What  Virgins  these,  in  speechless  woe,  75 

That  bend  to  earth  their  solemn  brow, 
That  their  flaxen  tresses  tear. 
And  snowy  veils,  that  float  in  air. 
Tell  me,  whence  their  sorrows  rose  : 
Then  I  leave  thee  to  repose.  80 

Pr.    Ha  !  no  Traveller  art  thou, 
King  of  Men,  I  know  thee  now, 
Mightiest  of  a  mighty  line 

O.    No  boding  Maid  of  skill  divine 
Art  thou,  nor  Prophetess  of  good  ;  85 

But  Mother  of  the  giant-brood  ! 

Pr.    Hie  thee  hence,  and  boast  at  home, 
That  never  shall  Enquirer  come 
To  break  my  iron-sleep  again  ; 
Till  Lok  ^  has  burst  his  tenfold  chain.  90 

Never,  till  substantial  Night 
Has  reassum'd  her  ancient  right  ; 
Till  wrap'd  in  flames,  in  ruin  hurl'd. 
Sinks  the  fabric  of  the  world. 

1  Lok  is  the  evil  Being,  who  continues  in  chains  till  the  Twilight  of 
the  Gods  approaches,  when  he  shall  break  his  bonds  ;  the  human 
race,  the  stars,  and  sun,  shall  disappear  ;  the  earth  sink  in  the  seas, 
ana  fire  consume  the  skies  :  even  Odin  himself  and  his  kindred- 
deities  shall  perish.  For  a  farther  explanation  of  this  mythology, 
see  Mallet's  Introduction  to  the  History  of  Denmark,  1755*  Quarto. 


THE    TRIUMPHS   OF  OWEN,  $1 

XVI. 

THE   TRIUMPHS    OF   OWEN. 

A   FRAGMENT. 

From  Mr.  Evans's  Specimens  of   the  Welch   Poetry;    London, 

1764,  Quarto. 

ADVERTISEMENT. 

Owen  succeeded  his  Father  Griffin  in  the  Principality  of 
North-Wales,  a.d.  1120.  This  battle  was  fought  near  forty  Years 
afterwards. 

Owen's  praise  demands  my  song, 

Owen  swift,  and  Owen  strong  ; 

Fairest  flower  of  Roderic's  stem, 

Gwyneth's^  shield,  and  Britain's  gem. 

He  nor  heaps  his  brooded  stores,  5 

Nor  on  all  profusely  pours  ; 

Lord  of  every  regal  art. 

Liberal  hand,  and  open  heart. 

Big  with  hosts  of  mighty  name, 
Squadrons  three  against  him  came  ;  10 

This  the  force  of  Eirin  hiding, 
Side  by  side  as  proudly  riding. 
On  her  shadow  long  and  gay 
Lochlin  ^  plows  the  watry  way  ; 
There  the  Norman  sails  afar  15 

Catch  the  winds,  and  join  the  war  : 
Black  and  huge  along  they  sweep, 
Burthens  of  the  angry  deep. 

'*■  North-Wales.  ^  Denmark. 


52  POEMS. 


Dauntless  on  his  native  sands 
The  Dragon-Son  of  Mona  stands  ;  ^  20 

In  ghtt'ring  arms  and  glory  drest, 
High  he  rears  his  ruby  crest. 
There  the  thund'ring  strokes  begin, 
There  the  press,  and  there  the  din  ; 
Talymalfra's  rocky  shore  25 

Echoing  to  the  battle's  roar. 
Where  his  glowing  eye-balls  turn, 
Thousand  Banners  round  him  burn. 
Where  he  points  his  purple  spear, 
Hasty,  hasty  Rout  is  there,  3° 

Marking  with  indignant  eye 
Fear  to  stop,  and  shame  to  fly. 
There  Confusion,  Terror's  child, 
Conflict  fierce,  and  Ruin  wild. 
Agony,  that  pants  for  breath,  35 

Despair  and  honourable  Death. 


XVII. 

THE  DEATH  OF  HOEL. 

AN   ODE,   SELECTED   FROM   THE  GODODIN. 

Had  I  but  the  torrent's  might. 

With  headlong  rage  and  wild  affright 

Upon  Deira's  squadrons  hurl'd. 

To  rush,  and  sweep  them  from  the  world  ! 

1  The  red  Dragon  is   the   device  of  Cadwallader,  which   all  his 
descendants  bore  on  their  banners. 


CARADOC.  53 

Too,  too  secure  in  youthful  pride,  S 

By  them  my  friend,  my  Hoel,  died, 
Great  Cian's  son  ;  of  Madoc  old 
He  ask'd  no  heaps  of  hoarded  gold ; 
Alone  in  nature's  wealth  array'd. 
He  ask'd  and  had  the  lovely  maid.  lo 

To  Cattraeth's  vale  in  glitt'ring  row 
Thrice  two  hundred  warriors  go  ; 
Every  warrior's  manly  neck 
Chains  of  regal  honour  deck, 

Wreath'd  in  many  a  golden  link  ;  15 

From  the  golden  cup  they  drink 
Nectar  that  the  bees  produce, 
Or  the  grape's  extatic  juice. 
Flush'd  with  mirth  and  hope  they  burn ; 
But  none  from  Cattraeth's  vale  return,  20 

Save  Aeron  brave,  and  Conan  strong, 
(Bursting  through  the  bloody  throng) 
And  I,  the  meanest  of  them  all. 
That  live  to  weep  and  sing  their  fall. 


xvni. 

CARADOC. 


Have  ye  seen  the  tusky  boar. 
Or  the  bull,  with  sullen  roar, 
On  surrounding  foes  advance  ? 
So  Caradoc  bore  his  lance. 


54  POEMS. 

XIX. 
CONAN. 


Conan's  name,  my  lay,  rehearse, 

Build  to  him  the  lofty  verse, 

Sacred  tribute  of  the  bard. 

Verse,  the  hero's  sole  reward. 

As  the  flame's  devouring  force  ;  5 

As  the  whirlwind  in  its  course ; 

As  the  thunder's  fiery  stroke, 

Glancing  on  the  shiver'd  oak  ; 

Did  the  sword  of  Conan  mow 

The  crimson  harvest  of  the  foe.  lo 


XX. 

WILLIAM    SHAKESPEARE 

TO  MRS.  ANNE,  REGULAR  SERVANT  TO  THE  REV.  MR.  PRECENTOR 

OF  YORK. 

A  moment's  patience,  gentle  Mistress  Anne  ; 

(But  stint  your  clack  for  sweet  St.  Charitie) 
'Tis  Willy  begs,  once  a  right  proper  man, 

Though  now  a  book,  and  interleaved  you  see. 

Much  have  I  borne  from  canker'd  critic's  spite,         5 
From  fumbling  baronets  and  poets  small. 

Pert  barristers,  and  parsons  nothing  bright, 
But  what  awaits  me  now  is  worst  of  all. 

'Tis  true,  our  master's  temper  natural 

Was  fashion'd  fair  in  meek  and  dove-like  guise  ;  lo 
But  may  not  honey's  self  be  turn'd  to  gall 

By  residence,  by  marriage,  and  sore  eyes? 


ODE  FOR   MUSIC.  55 

If  then  he  wreak  on  me  his  wicked  will, 

Steal  to  his  closet  at  the  hour  of  prayer ; 
And  (when  thou  hear'st  the  organ  piping  shrill)  15 

Grease  his  best  pen,  and  all  his  scribbles,  tear. 

• 

Better  to  bottom  tarts  and  cheesecakes  nice. 
Better  the  roast  meat  from  the  fire  to  save, 

Better  be  twisted  into  caps  for  spice. 

Than  thus  be  patch'd  and  cobbled  in  one's  grave.       20 

So  York  shall  taste  what  Clouet  never  knew, 
So  from  our  works  sublimer  fumes  shall  rise ; 

While  Nancy  earns  the  praise  to  Shakespeare  due, 
For  glorious  puddings  and  immortal  pies. 


XXI. 

ODE   FOR   MUSIC. 


[performed  at  the  installation  of  the  chancellor  of 

THE    university    OF   CAMBRIDGE,   I769.] 

Air. 

"  Hence,  avaunt,  ('tis  holy  ground) 

''  Comus,  and  his  midnight-crew, 

"  And  Ignorance  with  looks  profound, 

"  And  dreaming  Sloth  of  pallid  hue, 

"  Mad  Sedition's  cry  profane,  5 

"  Servitude  that  hugs  her  chain, 

"  Nor  in  these  consecrated  bowers 

"  Let  painted  Flatt'ry  hide  her  serpent-train  in  flowers. 

Chorus. 

"  Nor  Envy  base,  nor  creeping  Gain 

"  Dare  the  Muse's  walk  to  stain,  lo 

"  While  bright-eyed  Science  watches  round  : 

"  Hence,  away,  'tis  holy  Ground  ! 


56  POEMS. 

Recitative. 

From  yonder  realms  of  empyrean  day 

Bursts  on  my  ear  th'  indignant  lay  : 

There  sit  the  sainted  Sage,  the  Bard  divine,  15 

The  Few,  whom  Genius  gave  to  shine 

Through  every  unborn  age,  and  undiscovered  clime. 

Rapt  in  celestial  transport  they,  (accomp.) 

Yet  hither  oft  a  glance  from  high 

They  send  of  tender  sympathy  20 

To  bless  the  place,  where  on  their  opening  soul 

First  the  genuine  ardor  stole. 

'Twas  Milto7i  struck  the  deep-toned  shell, 

And,  as  the  choral  warblings  round  him  swell, 

Meek  Newton^ s  self  bends  from  his  state  sublime,  25 

And  nods  his  hoary  head,  and  listens  to  the  rhyme. 

Air. 

"  Ye  brown  o'er-arching  Groves, 

"  That  Contemplation  loves, 

"  Where  willowy  Camus  lingers  with  delight ! 

"  Oft  at  the  blush  of  dawn  3° 

"  I  trod  your  level  lawn, 

"  Oft  woo'd  the  gleam  of  Cynthia  silver-bright 

"  In  cloisters  dim,  far  from  the  haunts  of  Folly, 

"  With  Freedom  by  my  Side,  and  soft-ey'd  Melancholy. 

Recitative. 

But  hark !  the  portals  sound,  and  pacing  forth  35 

With  solemn  steps  and  slow 

High  Potentates  and  Dames  of  royal  birth 

And  mitred  Fathers  in  long  order  go  : 

Great  Edward  with  the  lillies  on  his  brow 


ODE   FOR  MUSIC.  57 

From  haughty  Gallia  torn,  40 

And  sad  Chatillon^  on  her  bridal  morn 

That  wept  her  bleeding  Love,  and  princely  Clare, 

And  Anjou's  Heroine,  and  the  paler  Rose, 

The  rival  of  her  crown,  and  of  her  woes, 

And  either  Henry  there,  45 

The  murther'd  Saint,  and  the  majestic  Lord, 

That  broke  the  bonds  of  Rome. 

(Their  tears,  their  little  triumphs  o'er,  {accomp^ 

Their  human  passions  now  no  more, 

Save  Charity,  that  glows  beyond  the  tomb)  50 

All  that  on  Graiita^s  fruitful  plain 

Rich  streams  of  regal  bounty  pour'd, 

And  bad  these  aweful  fanes  and  turrets  rise, 

To  hail  their  Fitzrofs  festal  morning  come  ; 

And  thus  they  speak  in  soft  accord  55 

The  liquid  language  of  the  skies. 

QUARTETTO. 

"  What  is  Grandeur,  what  is  Power  ? 

'*  Heavier  toil,  superior  pain. 

"What  the  bright  reward  we  gain  ? 

"  The  grateful  mem'ry  of  the  Good.  60 

"  Sweet  is  the  breath  of  vernal  shower, 

"  The  bee's  collected  treasures  sweet, 

"  Sweet  music's  melting  fall,  but  sweeter  yet 

"  The  still  small  voice  of  Gratitude. 

Recitative. 

Foremost  and  leaning  from  her  golden  cloud  65 

The  venerable  MargWet  see  ! 

"  Welcome,  my  noble  Son,  (she  cries  aloud) 

"  To  this,  thy  kindred  train,  and  me  : 


SS  POEMS. 


"  Pleas'd  in  thy  lineaments  we  trace 

"  A  Tudor' s  fire,  a  Beaufoffs  grace.  70 

Air. 

"Thy  liberal  heart,  thy  judging  eye, 

"  The  flower  unheeded  shall  descry, 

"  And  bid  it  round  heaven's  altars  shed 

"  The  fragrance  of  it's  blushing  head  : 

"  Shall  raise  from  earth  the  latent  gem  75 

"  To  glitter  on  the  diadem. 

Recitative. 

"  Lo,  Granta  waits  to  lead  her  blooming  band, 

"  Not  obvious,  not  obtrusive.  She 

"  No  vulgar  praise,  no  venal  incense  flings ; 

"  Nor  dares  with  courtly  tongue  refin'd  80 

"  Profane  thy  inborn  royalty  of  mind : 

"  She  reveres  herself  and  thee. 

"  With  modest  pride  to  grace  thy  youthful  brow 

"  Tlie  laureate  wreath,  that  Cecil  wore,  she  brings, 

"  And  to  thy  just,  thy  gentle  hand  •  §5 

"  Submits  the  Fasces  of  her  sway, 

"  While  Spirits  blest  above  and  Men  below 

"  Join  with  glad  voice  the  loud  symphonious  lay. 

Grand  Chorus. 

"  Thro*  the  wild  waves  as  they  roar 

"  With  watchful  eye  and  dauntless  mien  9° 

"  Thy  steady  course  of  honor  keep, 

"  Nor  fear  the  rocks,  nor  seek  the  shore  : 

"  The  Star  of  Bi'imswick  smiles  serene, 

"  And  gilds  the  horrors  of  the  deep. 


PROSE. 


[The  selections  from  Gray's  prose  are  divided  into  three  parts ;  first, 
those  that  are  Autobiographical,  —  throwing  light  on  his  own 
character,  or  referring  to  his  poems ;  second,  those  of  a  Literary 
nature,  —  containing  allusions  to  contemporary  writings  ;  third, 
those  expressing  appreciation  of  Nature.  The  titles  have  been 
supplied,  j^ 


I. 

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. 


COLLEGE    LIFE. 

TO    RICHARD    WEST. 

You  must  know  that  I  do  not  take  degrees,  and,  after 
this  term,  shall  have  nothing  more  of  college  impertinences 
to  undergo,  which  I  trust  will  be  some  pleasure  to  you,  as 
it  is  a  great  one  to  me.  I  have  endured  lectures  daily 
and  hourly  since  I  came  last,  supported  by  the  hopes  of  5 
being  shortly  at  full  liberty  to  give  myself  up  to  my 
friends  and  classical  companions,  who,  poor  souls  !  though 
I  see  them  fallen  into  great  contempt  with  most  people 
here,  yet  I  cannot  help  sticking  to  them,  and  out  of  a 
spirit  of  obstinacy  (I  think)  love  them  the  better  for  it  ;  10 
and  indeed,  what  can  I  do  else  ?  Must  I  plunge  into 
metaphysics  ?  Alas,  I  cannot  see  in  the  dark  ;  nature 
has  not  furnished  me  with  the  optics  of  a  cat.  Must  I 
pore  upon  mathematics?  Alas,  I  cannot  see  in  too  much 
light;  I  am  no  eagle.  It  is  very  possible  that  two  and  15 
two  make  four,  but  I  would  not  give  four  farthings  to 
demonstrate  this  ever  so  clearly  ;  and  if  these  be  the 
profits  of  life,  give  me  the  amusements  of  it.  The  people 
I  behold  all  around  me,  it  seems,  know  all  this  and  more, 
and  yet  I  do  not  know  one  of  them  who  inspires  me  with  20 
any  ambition  of  being  like  him.  Surely  it  was  of  this 
place,  now  Cambridge,  but  formerly  known  by  the  name 
of  Babylon,  that  the  prophet  spoke  when  he  said,  "The 
wild  beasts  of  the  desert  shall  dwell  there,  and  their 
houses  shall  be  full  of  doleful  creatures,  and  owls  shall  25 
build  there,  and  satyrs  shall  dance  there  ;  their  forts  and 


62  PROSE. 

towers  shall  be  a  den  forever,  a  joy  of  wild  asses  ;  there 
shall  the  great  owl  make  her  nest,  and  lay  and  hatch  and 
gather  under  her  shadow  ;  it  shall  be  a  court  of  dragons  ; 

30  the  screech  owl  also  shall  rest  there,  and  find  for  herself 
a  place  of  rest."  You  see  here  is  a  pretty  collection  of 
desolate  animals,  which  is  verified  in  this  town  to  a  tittle, 
and  perhaps  it  may  also  allude  to  your  habitation,  for 
you    know    all    types    may    be    taken    by   abundance    of 

35  handles  ;  however,  I  defy  your  owls  to  match  mine. 

If  the  default  of  your  spirits  and  nerves  be  nothing  but 
the  effect  of  the  hyp,  I  have  no  more  to  say.  We  all 
must  submit  to  that  wayward  queen  ;  I  too  in  no  small 
degree  own  her  sway, 

40  I  feel  her  influence  while  I  speak  her  power. 

But  if  it  be  a  real  distemper,  pray  take  more  care  of  your 
health,^  if  not  for  your  own  at  least  for  our  sakes,  and  do 
not  be  so  soon  weary  of  this  little  world  :  I  do  not  know 
what  refined  friendships  you  may  have  contracted  in  the 
45  other,  but  pray  do  not  be  in  a  hurry  to  see  your  acquaint- 
ance above ;  among  your  terrestrial  familiars,  however, 
though  I  say  it,  that  should  not  say  it,  there  positively  is 
not  one  that  has  a  greater  esteem  for  you  than  yours 
most  sincerely,  etc. 

Peterhouse,  December,  1736. 


MELANCHOLY. 

TO    RICHARD   WEST. 

August  22,  1737. 

Low  spirits  are  my  true  and  faithful  companions ;  they 
get  up  with  me,  go  to  bed  with  me,  make  journeys  and 

1  West  was  a  consumptive. 


PROSE.  63 

returns  as  I  do  ;  nay,  and  pay  visits,  and  will  even  affect 
to  be  jocose,  and  force  a  feeble  laugh  with  me  ;  but  most 
commonly  we  sit  alone  together,  and   are   the   prettiest    5 
insipid  company  in  the  world.     *     *     ^ 


SKETCH    OF   HIS    OWN    CHARACTER. 

TO    RICHARD   WEST. 

Florence,  Ap7-il  21,  1741. 
I  KNOW  not  what  degree  of  satisfaction  it  will  give  you 
to  be  told  that  we  shall  set  out  from  hence  the  24th  of 
this  month,  and  not  stop  above  a  fortnight  at  any  place 
in   our  way.      This    I   feel,   that  you   are   the   principal 
pleasure  I  have  to  hope  for  in  my  own  country.     Try  at     5 
least  to  make  me  imagine  myself  not  indifferent  to  you  ; 
for   I   must    own    I   have   the   vanity   of    desiring   to   be 
esteemed  by  somebody,  and  would  choose  that  somebody 
should  be  one  whom  I  esteem  as  much  as  I  do  you.     As 
I  am  recommending  myself  to  your  love,  methinks  I  ought  10 
to  send  you  my  picture  (for  I  am  no  more  what  I  was, 
some  circumstances  excepted,  which   I  hope  I  need  not 
particularize  to  you)  ;  you  must  add  then,  to  your  former 
idea,  two  years  of  age,  a  reasonable  quantity  of  dulness, 
a    great    deal    of    silence,    and    something    that    rather  15 
resembles,  than  is,  thinking  ;   a  confused  notion  of  many 
strange  and  fine  things  that  have  swum  before  my  eyes 
for  some  time,  a  want  of  love  for  general  society,  indeed 
an   inability  to  it.     On  the  good  side   you   may  add   a 
sensibility  for  what  others  feel,  and  indulgence  for  their  20 
faults  and  weaknesses,  a  love  of  truth,  and  detestation  of 
everything  else.     Then  you  are  to  deduct  a  little  imperti- 
nence, a  little  laughter,  a  great  deal  of  pride,  and  some 
spirits.     These   are   all   the   alterations  I   know   of,   you 


•    64  PROSE. 

25  perhaps  may  find  more.  Think  not  that  I  have  been 
obliged  for  this  reformation  of  manners  to  reason  or 
reflection,  but  to  a  severer  school-mistress,  Experience. 
One  has  little  merit  in  learning  her  lessons,  for  one 
cannot  well  help  it ;  but  they  are  more  useful  than  others, 

30  and  imprint  themselves  in  the  very  heart.     *     *     * 


MELANCHOLY. 

TO    RICHARD    WEST. 

London,  May  27,  1742. 
Mine,  you  are  to  know%  is  a  white  Melancholy,  or 
rather  Leucocholy  for  the  most  part ;  which,  though  it 
seldom  laughs  or  dances,  nor  ever  amounts  to  what  one 
calls  Joy  or  Pleasure,  yet  is  a  good  easy  sort  of  a  state, 
5  and  fa  ne  laisse  que  de  s^amuser.  The  only  fault  of  its 
insipidity ;  which  is  apt  now  and  then  to  give  a  sort  of 
Ennui,  which  makes  one  form  certain  little  wishes  that 
signify  nothing.  But  there  is  another  sort,  black  indeed, 
which  I  have  now  and  then  felt,  that  has  somewhat  in  it 

10  like  Tertullian's  rule  of  faith.  Credo  quia  impossibile  est; 
for  it  believes,  nay,  is  sure  of  everything  that  is  unlikely, 
so  it  be  but  frightful  ;  and  on  the  other  hand  excludes 
and  shuts  its  eyes  to  the  most  possible  hopes,  arfd  every- 
thing that  is  pleasurable  ;  from  this  the  Lord  deliver  us  ! 

15  for  none  but  he  and  sunshiny  weather  can  do  it.    *    *    * 


THE   OFFICE    OF    POET-LAUREATE. 

TO    THE    REV.    WILLIAM    MASON. 

December  ig,  ly^y. 

Dear  Mason  —  Though    I  very  well  know  the  bland 
emollient  saponaceous  qualities  both  of  sack  and  silver. 


PROSE.  65 

yet  if  any  great  man  would  say  to  me,  "  I  make  you  rat- 
catcher to  his  Majesty,  with  a  salary  of  ^300  a  year  and 
two  butts  of  the  best  Malaga  ;  and  though  it  has  been    5 
usual  to  catch  a  mouse  or  two,  for  form's  sake,  in  public 
once  a  year,  yet  to  you,  sir,  we  shall  not  stand  upon  these 
things,"  I  cannot  say  I  should  jump  at  it  ;   nay,  if  they 
would   drop   the   very  name   of   the  office,   and   call   me 
Sinecure  to  the  King's  Majesty,  I  should  still  feel  a  little  10 
awkward,  and  think  everybody  I  saw  smelt  a  rat  about 
me  ;  but  I  do  not  pretend  to  blame  any  one  else  that  has 
not  the  same  sensations  ;  for  my  part  I  would  rather  be 
Serjeant  trumpeter  or  pinmaker  to  the  palace.      Neverthe- 
less  I   interest   myself   a  little   in   the   history  of  it,  and  15 
rather  wish  somebody  may  accept  it  that  will  retrieve  the 
credit  of  the  thing,  if  it  be  retrievable,  or  ever  had  any 
credit.      Rowe  was,   I  think,  the  last  man  of   character 
that  had  it.     As  to  Settle,  whom  you  mention,  he  belonged 
to  my  lord  mayor  not  to  the  king.      Eusden  was  a  person  20 
of  great  hopes  in  his  youth,  though  at  last  he  turned  out 
a   drunken   parson.      Dryden  was  as   disgraceful   to   the 
office,  from  his  character,  as  the  poorest  scribbler  could 
have  been  from  his  verses.     The  office  itself  has  always 
humbled   the  professor  hitherto  (even  in   an  age  when  25 
kings  were  somebody),  if  he  were  a  poor  writer  by  mak- 
ing him  more  conspicuous,  and  if  he  were  a  good  one  by 
setting   him   at  war  with   the   little   fry  of  his   own  pro- 
fession, for  there  are  poets  little  enough  to  envy  even  a 
poet-laureat.  30 

1  am  obliged  to  you  for  your  news  ;  pray  send  me  some 
more,  and  better  of  the  sort.  I  can  tell  you  nothing  in 
return  ;  so  your  generosity  will  be  the  greater  ;  —  only 
Dick  is  going  to  give  up  his  rooms,  and  live  at  x\shwell. 
Mr.  Treasurer  sets  Sir  M.  Lamb  at  nought,  and  says  he  35 
has  sent  him  reasons  half  a  sheet  at  a  time  ;  and  Mr. 


66  PROSE. 

Brown  attests  his  veracity  as  an  eye-witness.  I  have  had 
nine  pages  of  criticism  on  the  "Bard"  sent  me  in  an 
anonymous   letter,   directed  to   the   Reverend  Mr.   G.   at 

40  Strawberry  Hill ;  and  if  I  have  a  mind  to  hear  as  much 
more  on  the  other  Ode,  I  am  told  where  I  may  direct. 
He  seems  a  good  sensible  man,  and  I  dare  say  a  clergy- 
man. He  is  very  frank,  and  indeed  much  ruder  than  he 
means  to  be.     Adieu,  dear  Mason,  and  believe  me  that  I 

45  am  too. 


ATTITUDE   TOWARD    LIFE. 

TO   THE    REV.    WILLIAM    MASON. 

January  3,  ly^S. 

Dear  Mason  —  A  life  spent  out  of  the  world  has  its 
hours  of  despondence,  its  inconveniences,  its  sufferings, 
as  numerous  and  as  real  (though  not  quite  of  the  same 
sort)  as  a  life  spent  in  the  midst  of  it.  The  power  we 
5  have,  when  we  will  exert  it,  over  our  own  minds,  joined 
to  a  little  strength  and  consolation,  nay,  a  little  pride  we 
catch  from  those  that  seem  to  love  us,  is  our  only  support 
in  either  of  these  conditions.  I  am  sensible  I  cannot 
return   to   vou   so   much    of   this   assistance    as    I    have 

10  received  from  you.  I  can  only  tell  you  that  one  who  has 
far  more  reason  than  you  (I  hope)  will  ever  have  to  look 
on  life  with  something  worse  than  indifference,  is  yet 
no  enemy  to  it,  and  can  look  backward  on  many  bitter 
moments  partly  with  satisfaction,  and  partly  with  patience, 

15  and  forward  too,  on  a  scene  not  very  promising,  with 
some  hope  and  some  expectations  of  a  better  day. 


PROSE.  67 

MELANCHOLY. 

TO    THE    REV.    JAMES    I'.ROWN. 

Septejiiber  7,  I'J^S. 
*  *  #'#  *  #  *  #  * 

My  health  I  cannot  complain  of,  but  as  to  my  spirits 
they  are  always  many  degrees  below  changeable,  and  I 
seem  to  myself  to  inspire  everything  around  me  with 
e;inui  and  dejection  ;  but  some  time  or  other  all  these 
things  must  come  to  a  conclusion,  till  which  day  I  shall  5 
remain  very  sincerely  yours, .  T.  G. 


GRAY'S    MOTHER. 

TO    THE    REV.    NORTON    NICHOLLS. 

Pembroke  Hall,  Angzist  26,  lydd. 

Dear  Sir  —  It  is  long  since  that  I  heard  you  were 
gone  in  hast  into  Yorkshire  on  account  of  your  mother's 
illness  ;  and  the  same  letter  informed  me  that  she  was 
recovered  ;  otherwise  I  had  then  wrote  to  you,  only  to 
beg  you  would  take  care  of  her,  and  to  inform  you  that  I  5 
had  discovered  a  thing  very  little  known,  which  is,  that  in 
one's  whole  life  one  never  can  have  any  more  than  a 
single  mother.  You  may  think  this  is  obvious,  and  (what 
you  call)  a  trite  observation.  You  are  a  green  gosling  ! 
I  was  at  the  same  age  (very  near)  as  wise  as  you,  and  yet  10 
I  never  discovered  this  (with  full  evidence  and  convic- 
tion, I  mean)  till  it  was  too  late.  It  is  thirteen  years 
ago,  and  seems  but  yesterday  ;  and  every  day  I  live  it 
sinks  deeper  into  my  heart.  Many  a  corollary  could  I 
draw  from  this  axiom  for  your  use  (not  for  my  own)  but  I  15 
will  leave  you  the  merit  of  doing  it  yourself.     *     *     * 


68  PROSE. 

CONSOLATION. 

TO    THE    REV.    WILLIAM    MASON. 

Sunday,  February  75,  lydy. 

#  *  *  There  are  a  few  words  in  vour  letter  that  make 
me  believe  you  wish  I  were  in  town.^  I  know  myself  how 
little  one  like  me  is  formed  to  support  the  spirits  of 
another,  or  give  him  consolation  ;  one  that  always  sees 
5  things  in  their  most  gloomy  aspect.  However,  be  assured 
I  should  not  have  left  London  while  you  were  in  it,  if  I 
could  well  have  afforded  to  stay  there  till  the  beginning 
of  April,  when  I  am  usually  there.  This,  however,  shall 
be  no  hindrance,  if  you  tell  me  it  would  signify  anything 
10  to  you  that  I  should  come  sooner.  Adieu  :  you  (both  of 
you)  have  my  best  and  sincerest  good  wishes.  —  I  am 
ever  yours,  T.  G. 


SYMPATHY. 

TO    THE    REV.    WILLIAM    MASON. 

March  28,  1767. 

My  Dear  Mason  —  I  break  in  upon  you  at  a  moment 
when  we  least  of  all  are  permitted  to  disturb  our  friends, 
only  to  say  that  you  are  daily  and  hourly  present  to  my 
thoughts.  If  the  worst  be  not  yet  passed,  you  will  neglect 
5  and  pardon  me  ;  but  if  the  last  struggle  be  over,  if  the 
poor  object  of  your  long  anxieties  be  no  longer  sensible 
to  your  kindness,  or  to  her  own  sufferings,  allow  me  (at 
least  in  idea,  for  what  could  I  do  were  I  present  more 
than  this),  to  sit  by  you  in  silence,  and  pity  from  my 
10  heart,  not  her  who  is  at  rest,  but  you  who  lose  her.  May 
He  who  made  us,  the  Master  of  our  pleasures  and  of  our 
pains,  preserve  and  support  you.     Adieu  ! 

I  have  long  understood  how  little  you  had  to  hope. 

'  Mason's  wife  was  fatally  ill. 


PROSE.  69 

THE    SHADOW    OF   DEATH. 

TO    THOMAS    WHARTON. 

May  24,  1771. 

Mv  summer  was  intended  to  have  been  passed  in 
Switzerland  :  but  I  have  dropped  the  thought  of  it,  and 
beUeve  my  expeditions  will  terminate  in  Old  Park  :  for 
travel  I  must,  or  cease  to  exist.  Till  this  year  I  hardly 
knew  what  (mechanical)  low  spirits  were  :  but  now  I 
even  tremble  at  an  East-wind.  It  is  here  the  height  of 
Summer,  but  with  all  the  bloom  and  tender  verdure  of 
Spring.  *  *  ^     [Gray  died  July  30.] 


HIS    POETRY. 
THE    ODE    ON    WALPOLE'S    CAT. 

TO    HORACE    WALPOLE. 

Cambridge,  March  i,  174/. 

As  one  ought  to  be  particularly  careful  to  avoid 
blunders  in  a  compliment  of  condolence,  it  would  be 
a  sensible  satisfaction  to  me  (before  I  testify  my  sorrow, 
and  the  sincere  part  I  take  in  your  misfortune)  to  know 
for  certain,  who  it  is  I  lament.  I  knew  Zara  and  Selima  ^ 
(Selima  was  it?  or  Fatima  ?),  or  rather  I  knew  them  both 
together  ;  for  I  cannot  justly  say  which  was  which.  Then 
as  to  your  handsome  Cat,  the  name  you  distinguish  her 
by,  I  am  no  less  at  a  loss,  as  well  knowing  one's  hand- 
some cat  is  always  the  cat  one  likes  best;  or  if  one  be  ic 
alive  and  the  other  dead,  it  is  usually  the  latter  that  is 
the  handsomest.  Besides,  if  the  point  were  never  so 
clear,  I  hope  you  do  not  think  me  so  ill-bred  or  so 
imprudent  as  to  forfeit  all  my  interest  in  the  survivor ; 
oh  no  !      I  would  rather  seem  to  mistake,  and  imagine  to  15 


70  ■  PROSE. 

be  sure  it  must  be  the  tabby  one  that  had  met  with  this 
sad  accident.  *  *  *  Heigh  ho  !  I  feel  (as  you  to  be  sure 
have  done  long  since)  that  I  have  very  little  to  say,  at 
least  in  prose.  Somebody  will  be  the  better  for  it  ;  I  do 
20  not  mean  you,  but  your  Cat,  feue  Mademoiselle  Selime, 
whom  I  am  about  to  immortalise  for  one  week  or  fort- 
night, as  follows. 

[Here  follows  the  Ode.] 

There's  a  poem  for  you,  it  is  rather  too  long  for  an 
Epitaph. 

THE    ELEGY. 

TO    HORACE   WALPOLE. 

Stoke,  June  12,  17S0. 

Dear   SiR: — As    I    live    in    a  place,  where   even   the 

ordinary  tattle  of  the  town  arrives  not  till  it  is  stale,  and 

which  produces  no  events  of  its  own,  you  will  not  desire 

any  excuse  from  me  for  writing  so  seldom,  especially  as 

5  of  all  people  living  I  know  you  are  the  least  a  friend  to 

letters  spun  out  of  one's  owm  brains,  with  all  the  toil  and 

constraint  that  accompanies  sentimental  productions.      I 

have   been   here   at    Stoke,    a  few  days  (where    I    shall 

continue  good  part  of  the  summer)  ;    and  having  put  an 

10  end  to  a  thing,  whose  beginning  you  have  seen  long  ago, 

I  immediately  send  it  you.     You  will,  I  hope,  look  upon 

it  in  the  light  of  a  thing  with  an  end  to  it  :    a  merit  that 

most  of  my  writings  have  wanted,  and  are  like  to  w^ant, 

but  w^hich  this  epistle  I  am  determined  shall  not  w^nt, 

15  when  it  tells  you  that  I  am  ever  yours, 

T.  Gray. 

Not  that  I  have  done  yet  ;  but  who  could  avoid  the 
temptation  of  finishing  so  roundly  and  so  cleverly,  in  the 
manner  of  good  Queen  Anne's  days  ?  *  *  * 


PROSE.  7 1 

THE   ELEGY. 

TO    HORACE   WALPOLE. 

Cambridge,  Febncary  ii,  //j"/. 

As  you  have  brought  me  into  a  little  sort  of  distress, 
you  must  assist  me,  1  believe,  to  get  out  of  it  as  well  as  1 
can.     Yesterday  I  had  the  misfortune  of  receiving  a  letter 
from  certain  gentlemen  (as  their  bookseller  expresses  it), 
who  have  taken  the  Magazine  of   Magazines  into  their    5 
hands.     They  tell    me    that    an    ingenious    Poem,   called 
reflections    in    a   Country   Church-yard,    has    been    com- 
municated to  them,  which  they  are  printing  forthwith  ; 
that  they  are  informed  that  the  excellait  author  of  it  is  I 
by  name,  and  that  they  beg  not  only  his  ifidulgeiice^  but  10 
the  honour  of  his  correspondence,  etc.     As  I  am  not  at  all 
disposed  to  be  either  so  indulgent,  or  so  correspondent, 
as  they  desire,  I  have  but  one  bad  way  left  to  escape  the 
honour  they  would  inflict  upon  me  ;    and   therefore  am 
obliged    to    desire    you    would    make    Dodsley    print    it  15 
immediately  (which  may  be  done  in  less  than  a  week's 
time)  from    your   copy,  but   without   my  name,  in   what 
form  is  most  convenient  for  him,  but  on  his  best  paper 
and  character ;    he  must  correct  the  press  himself,  and 
print  it  without  any  interval  between  the  stanzas,  because  20 
the  sense  is  in  some  places  continued  beyond  them ;  and 
the  title  must  be,  —  Elegy,  written  in  a  Country  Church- 
yard.     If  he  would  add  a  line  or  two  to  say  it  came  into 
his  hands  by  accident,  I  should  like  it  better.      If  you 
behold  the  Magazine  of  Magazines  in  the  light  that  I  do,  25 
you  will  not  refuse  to  give  yourself  this  trouble  on  my 
account,  which  you  have  taken  of  your  own  accord  before 
now.      If  Dodsley  do  not  do  this  immediately,  he  may  as 
well  let  it  alone. 


72  PROSE. 


THE   ELEGY. 


TO    HORACE   WALPOLE. 

Ash- Wednesday,  Cambridge,  ly^i- 

My  dear  Sir  —  You  have  indeed  conducted  with 
great  decency  my  little  misfortime ;  you  have  taken  a 
paternal  care  of  it,  and  expressed  much  more  kindness 
than  could  have  been  expressed  from  so  near  a  relation. 

5  But  we  are  all  frail ;   and  I  hope  to  do  as  much  for  you 
another  time. 

Nurse  Dodsley  has  given  it  a  pinch  or  two  in  the 
cradle,  that  (I  doubt)  it  wall  bear  the  marks  of  as  long  as 
it   lives.      But   no    matter :    we   have    ourselves    suffered 

lo  under  her  hands  before  now ;  and  besides,  it  will  only 
look  the  more  careless  and  by  accide?it  as  it  were.  I 
thank  you  for  your  advertisement,  which  saves  my 
honour,  and  in  a  manner  bien  JJatteuse  pour  j?ioi,  who 
should  be  put  to  it  even  to  make  myself  a  compliment  in 

15  good  English. 

You  will  take  me  for  a  mere  poet,  and  a  fetcher  and 
carrier  of  sing-song,  if  I. tell  you  that  I  intend  to  send  you 
the  beginning  of  a  drama,  not  mine,  thank  God,  as  you 
will  believe,  when  you  hear  it  is  finished,  but  wrote  by  a 

20  person  whom  I  have  a  very  good  opinion  of.  It  is 
(unfortunately)  in  the  manner  of  the  ancient  drama,  with' 
choruses,  which  I  am  to  my  shame  the  occasion  of ;  for, 
as  great  part  of  it  was  at  first  written  in  that  form,  I 
would  not  suffer  him  to  change  it  to  a  play  fit  for  the 

25  stage,  and  as  he  intended,  because  the  lyric  parts  are  the 
best  of  it,  they  must  have  been  lost.  The  story  is 
Saxon,  and  the  language  has  a  tang  of  Shakespeare,  that 
suits  an  old-fashioned  fable  very  well.  In  short  I  don't 
do  it  merely  to  amuse  you,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  author, 

30  who  wants  a  judge,  and  so  I  would  lend  him  mine :  yet 


PROSE.  73 

not  without  your  leave,  lest  you   should  have  us  up  to 

dirty  our  stockings  at  the  bar  of  your  house,  for  wasting 

the  time  and  politics  of  the  fiation.  —  Adieu,  Sir  !     I  am 

ever  yours, 

T.  Gray. 


THE   PROGRESS    OF   POESY. 

TO    HORACE   WALPOLE. 

********* 

I  DO  not  wonder  at  Dodsley.  You  have  talked  to  him 
of  six  Odes^  for  so  you  are  pleased  to  call  everything  I 
write,  though  it  be  but  a  receipt  to  make  apple-dumplings. 
He  has  reason  to  gulp  when  he  hnds  one  of  them  only  a 
long  story.  I  don't  know  but  I  may  send  him  very  soon  5 
(by  your  hands)  an  ode  to  his  own  tooth,  a  high  Pindaric 
upon  stilts,  which  one  must  be  a  better  scholar  than  he  is 
to  understand  a  line  of,  and  the  very  best  scholars  will 
understand  but  a  little  matter  here  and  there. 

It  wants  but  seventeen  lines  of  having  an  end,  I  don't  10 
say  of  being  finished.  As  it  is  so  unfortunate  to  come 
too  late  for  Mr.  Bentley,  it  may  appear  in  the  fourth 
volume  of  the  Miscella?iies,  provided  you  don't  think  it 
execrable,  and  suppress  it.  Pray  when  the  fine  book  is 
to  be  printed,  let  me  revise  the  press,  for  you  know  you  15 
can't ;  and  there  are  a  few  trifles  I  could  wish  altered. 

^F  'w  tp  tF  tt  TV  "Jr  Tv  ^1 


THE   "SIX    POEMS"   OF   1753. 

TO    ROBERT    DODSLEY. 

Cambridge,  February  12,  1J33. 

Sir  —  I   am   not   at   all    satisfied   with   the   title.     To 
have  it  conceived  that  I  publish  a  collection  of  Poems, 


74  PROSE. 

and  half  a  dozen  little  matters  (four  of  which  too  have 
already  been  printed  again  and  again)  thus  pompously 
5  adorned  would  make  me  appear  very  justly  ridiculous. 
I  desire  it  may  be  understood  (which  is  the  truth),  that 
the  verses  are  only  subordinate  and  explanatory  to  the 
Drawings,  and  suffered  by  me  to  come  out  thus  only  for 
that  reason  :  therefore,  if  you  yourself  prefixed  this  title, 

lo  I  desire  it  may  be  altered.  Or,  if  Mr.  W[alpole]  ordered 
it  so,  that  you  would  tell  him  why  I  wish  it  were  changed 
in  the  manner  I  mentioned  to  you  at  first,  or  to  that 
purpose.  For  the  more  I  consider  it,  the  less  I  can  bear 
it,  as  it  now  stands.      I  even  think  there  is  an  uncommon 

15  sort  of  simplicity  that  looks  like  affectation,  in  putting 
our  plain  Christian  and  surnames  without  a  Mr.  before 
them.  But  this  (if  it  signifies  anything)  I  easily  give  up, 
the  other  I  cannot.  You  need  not  apprehend  that  this 
change  in  the  title  will  be  any  prejudice  to  the  sale  of 

20  the  book.     *     *     *     Perhaps  you  may  have  burnt   my 

letter,  so  I  will  agaia  put  down  the  title  —  "Designs  by 

Mr.  R.  Bentley  for  six  poems  of  Mr.  T.  Gray."  — -I  am, 

Sir,  your  humble  servant, 

T.  G. 


THE    PINDARIC    ODES. 

TO    RICHARD    KURD. 

Stoke,  August  2^,  1757- 

Dear  Sir  —  I  do  not  know  why  you  should  thank  me 
for  what  you  had  a  right  and  title  to  ;  but  attribute  it  to 
the  excess  of  your  politeness,  and  the  more  so  because 
almost  no  one  else  has  made  me  the  same  compliment. 
5  As  your  acquaintance  in  the  University  (you  say)  do  me 
the  honour  to  admire,  it  would  be  ungenerous  in  me  not 
to  give  them  notice  that  they  are  doing  a  very  unfashion- 


PROSE.  75 

able  thing,  for  all  people  of  condition  are  agreed  not  to 
admire,  nor  even  to  understand  :  one  very  great  man, 
writing  to  an  acquaintance  of  his  and  mine,  says  that  he  ic 
had  read  them  seven  or  eight  times,  and  that  now,  when 
he  next  sees  him,  he  shall  not  have  above  thirty  ques- 
tions to  ask.  Another,  a  peer,  believes  that  the  last 
stanza  of  the  Second  Ode  relates  to  King  Charles  the 
First  and  Oliver  Cromwell.  Even  my  friends  tell  me  15 
they  do  not  succeed,  and  write  me  moving  topics  of 
consolation  on  that  head  ;  in  short,  I  have  heard  of 
nobody  but  a  player  and  a  doctor  of  divinity  that  profess 
their  esteem  for  them.  Oh  yes !  a  lady  of  quality,  a 
friend  of  Mason's,  who  is  a  great  reader.  She  knew  20 
there  was  a  compliment  to  Dryden,  but  never  suspected 
there  was  anything  said  about  Shakespeare  or  Milton, 
till  it  was  explained  to  her  ;  and  wishes  that  there  had 
been  titles  prefixed  to  tell  what  they  were  about. 

From  this  mention  of  Mason's  name  you  may  think,  25 
perhaps,  we  are  great   correspondents  ;    no  such  thing  ; 
I  have  not  heard  from  him  these  two  months.      I  will  be 
sure  to  scold  in  my  own  name  as  well  as  in  yours.     I 
rejoice   to   hear   you  are  so  ripe   for   the   press,   and   so 
voluminous,  —  not    for    my   own    sake    only,    whom    you  30 
flatter  with  the  hopes  of  seeing  your  labours  both  public 
and  private,  —  but  for  yours  too,  for  to  be  employed  is  to 
be  happy.     This  principle  of  mine,  and  I  am  convinced 
of  its  truth,  has,  as  usual,  no  influence  on  my  practice. 
I  am  alone  and  eimuye  to  the  last  degree,  yet  do  nothing  ;  35 
indeed    I   have   one   excuse ;    my   health,    which   you   so 
kindly  enquire  after,   is  not   extraordinary,   ever  since   I 
came   hither.      It  is  no  great  malady,  but  several  little 
ones,  that  seem  brewing  no  good  to  me. 

It  will  be  a  particular  pleasure  to  me  to  hear  whether  40 
Content  dwells  in  Leicestershire,  and  how  she  entertains 


76  PROSE. 

herself  there  ;  only  do  not  be  too  happy,  nor  forget 
entirely  the  quiet  ugliness  of  Cambridge.  I  am,  dear 
Sir,  your  friend  and  obliged  humble  servant, 

T.  Gray. 


THE   PINDARIC    ODES. 


TO    THE    REV.  WILLIAM    MASON. 


Dear  Mason  —  You  are  welcome  to  the  land  of  the 
living,  to  the  sunshine  of  a  court,  to  the  dirt  of  a  chap- 
lain's table,  to  the  society  of  Dr.  Squire  and  Dr.  Chapman. 
Have  you  set  out,  as  Dr.  Cobden  ended,  with  a  sermon 
5  against  adultery }  or  do  you,  with  deep  mortification  and 
a  Christian  sense  of  your  own  nothingness,  read  prayers 
to  Princess  Emily  while  she  is  putting  on  her  dress  ? 
Pray  acquaint  me  with  the  whole  ceremonial,  and  how 
your    first    preachment     succeeded  ;    whether    you    have 

lo  heard  of  anybody  that  renounced  their  election,  or  made 
restitution  to  the  Exchequer  ;  whether  you  saw  any 
woman  trample  her  pompons  under  foot,  or  spit  upon 
her  handkerchief  to  wipe  off  the  rouge. 

I  would  not  have  put  another  note  to  save  the  souls  of 

15  all  the  owls  in  London.  It  is  extremely  well  as  it  is  — 
nobody  understands  me,  and  I  am  perfectly  satisfied. 
Even  the  Critical  Review  (Mr.  Franklin,  I  am  told),  that 
is  rapt  and  surprised  and  shudders  at  me,  yet  mistakes 
the  ^^olian  lyre  for  the  harp  of  yEoIus,  which,  indeed,  as 

20  he  observes,  is  a  very  bad  instrument  to  dance  to.  If 
you  hear  anything  (though  it  is  not  very  likely,  for  I 
know  my  day  is  over),  you  will  tell  me.  Lord  Lyttleton 
and  Mr.  Shenstone  admire  me,  but  wish  I  had  been  a 
little  clearer.      Mr.  (Palmyra)  Wood  owns  himself  disap- 

25  pointed  in  his  expectations.      Your  enemy,   Dr.   Brown, 


PROSE.  77 

says  1  am  the  best  thing  in  the  language.  Mr.  FoXj 
supposing  the  Bard  sung  his  song  but  once  over,  does 
not  wonder  if  Edward  the  First  did  not  understand  him. 
This  last  criticism  is  rather  unhappy,  for  though  it  had 
been  sung  a  hundred  times  under  his  window,  it  was  30 
absolutely  impossible  King  Edward  should  understand 
him  ;  but  that  is  no  reason  for  Mr.  Fox,  who  lives  almost 
500  years  after  him.  It  is  very  well  ;  the  next  thing  I 
print  shall  be  in  Welch,  —  that's  all,     *     *     * 


HIS    OWN    AIM   IN    POETRY. 

TO   THE    REV.   WILLIAM    MASON. 

January  ij,  1738. 

iV-  ^u  ^^  J^  -^  -^  ^  -^  ^ 

^  TT  TT  TP  TT  -TV-  -TV"  TT  TT 

Extreme  conciseness  of  expression,  yet  pure,  perspicu- 
ous, and  musical,  is  one  of  the  grand  beauties  of  lyric 
poetry.  This  I  have  always  aimed  at,  and  never  could 
attain  ;  the  necessity  of  rhyming  is  one  great  obstacle  to 
it :  another  and  perhaps  a  stronger  is,  that  way  you  have  5 
chosen  of  casting  down  your  first  ideas  carelessly  and  at 
large,  and  then  clipping  them  here  and  there,  and  form- 
ing them  at  leisure  ;  this  method,  after  all  possible  pains, 
will  leave  behind  it  in  some  places  a  laxity,  a  diffuseness  ; 
the  frame  of  a  thought  (otherwise  well  invented,  well  re 
turned,  and  well  placed)  is  often  weakened  by  it.  Do  I 
talk  nonsense,  or  do  you  understand  me .''  I  am  per- 
suaded what  I  say  is  true  in  my  head,  whatever  it  may 
be    in    prose,  —  for    I    do    not    pretend    to    write    prose. 

•^  tP  TP  -TV"  -TV"  tT  TV"  tT  TT 


7&  .  PJiOSE. 

HIS    STERILITY. 

TO    HORACE    WALPOLE. 

Pembroke  College,  February  2^,  1768. 

*  *  *  DoDSLEY  told  me  in  the  Spring  that  the  plates 
from  Mr.  Bentley's  designs  were  worn  out,  and  he  wanted 
to  have  them  copied  and  reduced  to  a  smaller  scale  for  a 
new  edition.  I  dissuaded  him  from  so  silly  an  expense, 
5  and  desired  he  would  put  in  no  ornaments  at  all.  The 
Long  Story  was  to  be  totally  omitted,  as  its  only  use  (that 
of  explaining  the  prints)  was  gone  :  but  to  supply  the 
place  of  it  in  bulk,  lest  viy  works  should  be  mistaken  for 
the  works  of  a  flea,  or  a  pismire,  I  promised  to  send  him 

10  an  equal  weight  of  poetry  or  prose  :  so,  since  my  return 
hither,  I  put  up  about  two  ounces  of  stuff,  viz.  the 
"  Fatal  Sisters,"  the  "  Descent  of  Odin  "  (of  both  which 
you  have  copies),  a  bit  of  something  from  the  Welch,  and 
certain  little  Notes,  partly  from  justice  (to  acknowledge 

15  the  debt  where  I  had  borrowed  anything)  partly  from  ill 
temper,  just  to  tell  the  gentle  reader  that  Edward  I.  was 
not  Oliver  Cromwell,  nor  Queen  Elizabeth  the  Witch  of 
Endor.  This  is  literally  all ;  and  with  all  this,  I  shall  be 
but  a  shrimp  of  an  author.     *     *     *     Xo  what  you  say 

20  to  me  so  civilly,  that  I  ought  to  write  more,  I  reply  in 
your  own  words  (like  the  Pamphleteer,  who  is  going  to 
confute  you  out  of  your  own  mouth)  What  has  one  to  do 
when  turned  of  ffty,  but  really  to  think  of  finishing  ? 
However,  I  will  be  candid  (for  you  seem  to  be  so  with 

25  me),  and  avow  to  you,  that  till  fourscore- and-ten,  when- 
ever the  humour  takes  me,  I  will  write,  because  I  like  it  ; 
and  because  I  like  myself  better  when  I  do  so.  If  I  do 
not  write  much,  it  is  because  I  cannot.     *     *     * 


PEOSE.  79 

II. 

LITERATURE. 


SHAKSPERE,    FIELDING,    AND    POETRY. 

TO    RICHARD   WEST. 

London,  April,  Thursday  [/y^]. 

You  are  the  first  who  ever  made  a  Muse  of  a  Cough  ;  ^ 
to  me  it  seems  a  much  more  easy  task  to  versify  in  one's 
sleep  (that  indeed  you  were  of  old  famous  for),  than  for 
want  of  it.  Not  the  wakeful  nightingale  (when  she  had 
a  cough),  ever  sung  so  sweetly.  I  give  you  thanks  for  5 
your  warble,  and  wish  you  could  sing  yourself  to  rest. 
These  wicked  remains  of  your  illness  will  sure  give  way 
to  warm  weather  and  gentle  exercise  ;  which  I  hope  you 
will  not  omit  as  the  season  advances.  Whatever  low 
spirits  and  indolence,  the  effect  of  them,  may  advise  to  10 
the  contrary,  I  pray  you  add  five  steps  to  your  walk  daily 
for  my  sake  ;  by  the  help  of  which,  in  a  month's  time,  I 
propose  to  set  you  on  horseback. 

I  talked  of  the  Du7iciad  as  concluding  you  had  seen  it ; 
if  you  have  not,  do  you  choose  I  should  get  and  send  it  15 
you .''  I  have  myself,  upon  your  recommendation,  been 
reading  Joseph  Afidrews}  The  incidents  are  ill  laid  and 
without  invention  ;  but  the  characters  have  a  great  deal 
of  nature,  which  always  pleases  even  in  her  lowest  shapes. 
Parson  Adams  is  perfectly  well  ;  so  is  Mrs.  Slipslop,  and  2c 
the  story  of  Wilson  ;  and  throughout  he  shows  himself 
well  read  in  Stage-Coaches,  Country  Squires,  Inns,  and 
Inns  of   Court.      His  reflections   upon   high  people   and 

^  West  had  sent  Gray  a  Latin  poem  on  his  own  sickness. 
2  It  had  just  appeared. 


So  PROSE. 

low    people,    an4    misses    and    masters,    are    very  good. 

25  However  the  exaltedness  of  some  minds  (or  rather  as  I 
shrewdly  suspect  their  insipidity  and  want  of  feeling  or 
observation),  may  make  them  insensible  to  these  light 
things  (I  mean  such  as  characterise  and  paint  nature), 
yet  surely  they  are  as  weighty  and  much  more  useful  than 

30  your  grave  discourses  upon  the  mind,  the  passions,  and 
what  not.  Now  as  the  paradisaical  pleasures  of  the 
Mahometans  consist  in  playing  upon  the  flute  and  lying 
with  Houris,  be  mine  to  read  eternal  new  romances  of 
Marivaux  and  Crebillon. 

35  You  are  very  good  in  giving  yourself  the  trouble  to 
read  and  find  fault  with  my  long  harangues.  Your 
freedom  (as  you  call  it),  has  so  little  need  of  apologies, 
that  I  should  scarce  excuse  your  treating  me  any  other- 
wise ;    which,  whatever   compliment   it   might   be  to  my 

40  vanity,  would  be  making  a  very  ill  one  to  my  understand- 
ing. As  to  matter  of  stile,  I  have  this  to  say :  the 
language  of  the  age  is  never  the  language  of  poetry ;  ^ 
except  among  the  French,  whose  verse,  where  the  thought 
or   image    does   not   support   it,   differs   in   nothing  from 

45  prose.  Our  poetry,  on  the  contrary,  has  a  language 
peculiar  to  itself  ;  to  which  almost  everyone,  that  has 
written,  has  added  something  by  enriching  it  with  foreign 
idioms  and  derivatives :  nay  sometimes  words  of  their 
own  composition  or  invention.      Shakespear  and  Milton 

50  have  been  great  creators  this  way  ;  and  no  one  more 
licentious  than  Pope  or  Dryden,  who  perpetually  borrow 
expressions  from  the  former.  *  *  *  Jn  truth.  Shake- 
spear's  language  is  one  of  his  principal  beauties  ;  aud  he 
has  no  less  advantage  over  your  Addisons  and  Rowes  in 

55  this,  than  in  those  other  great  excellencies  you  mention. 

1  Compare  this,  and  what  follows,  with  Wards  worth's  celebrated 
theory. 


PROSE.  8 1 

Every  word  in  him  is  a  picture.     Pray  put  me  the  follow- 
ing lines  into  the  tongue  of  our  modern  dramatics: 

"  But  I,  that  am  not  shaped  for  sportive  tricks, 
Nor  made  to  court  an  amorous  looking-glass  : 
I,  that  am  rudely  stampt,  and  want  love's  majesty  6o 

To  strut  before  a  wanton  ambling  nymph  : 
I,  that  am  curtail'd  of  this  fair  proportion, 
Cheated  of  feature  by  dissembling  nature, 
Deform'd,  unfinish'd,  sent  before  my  time 
Into  this  breathing  world,  scarce  half  made  up  —  "  65 

And  what  follows.  To  me  they  appear  untranslatable  ; 
and  if  this  be  the  case,  our  language  is  greatly  degener- 
ated. However,  the  affectation  of  imitating  Shakespear 
may  doubtless  be  carried  too  far ;  and  is  no  sort  of 
excuse  for  sentiments  ill-suited,  or  speeches  ill-timed,  70 
which  I  believe  is  a  little  the  case  with  me.     *     *     * 


COLLINS    AND    J.    WARTON. 

TO    THOMAS    WHARTON. 

*  *  *  Have  you  seen  the  works  of  two  young  authors, 
a  Mr.  Warton  and  a  Mr.  Collins,  both  writers  of  Odes? 
It  is  odd  enough,  but  each  is  the  half  of  a  considerable 
man,  and  one  the  counterpart  of  the  other.  The  first  has 
but  little  invention,  very  poetical  choice  of  expression, 
and  a  good  ear.  The  second,  a  fine  fancy,  modelled 
upon  the  antique,  a  bad  ear,  great  variety  of  words,  and 
images  with  no  choice  at  all.     They  both  deserve  to  last 

some  years,  but  will  not.-^     Adieu  !  dear  S^ I  am  very 

sincerely  yours,  rp   ^ 

December  27,  [1746]. 

I  was  thirty  years  old  yesterday.  What  is  it  o'clock 
by  you  ? 

1  Joseph  Warton's  Odes  sold  much  better  than  Collins's. 


10 


82  PROSE. 

CONTEMPORARY    POETS. 

TO    HORACE   WALPOLE. 

I  AM  obliged  to  you  for  Mr.  Dodsley's  book/  and 
having  pretty  well  looked  it  over,  will  (as  you  desire) 
tell  you  my  opinion  of  it.  He  might,  methinks,  have 
spared  the  graces  in  his  frontispiece,  if  he  chose  to  be 
5  economical,  and  dressed  his  authors  in  a  little  more 
decent  raiment  —  not  in  whited-brown  paper,  and  dis- 
torted characters,  like  an  old  ballad.  I  am  ashamed  to 
see  myself ;  but  the  company  keeps  me  in  countenance  : 
so  to  begin  with  Mr.  Tickell.     This  is  not  only  a  state- 

lo  poem  (my  ancient  aversion),  but  a  state-poem  on  the 
peace  of  Utrecht.  If  Mr.  Pope  had  wrote  a  panegyric 
on  it,  one  could  hardly  have  read  him  with  patience  :  but 
this  is  only  a  poor  short-winded  imitator  of  Addison,  who 
had   himself  not   above   three   or  four  notes   in   poetry, 

15  sweet  enough  indeed,  like  those  of  a  German  flute,  but 
such  as  soon  tire  and  satiate  the  ear  with  their  frequent 
return.  Tickell  has  added  to  this  a  great  poverty  of 
sense,  and  a  string  of  transitions  that  hardly  become  a 
school-boy.      However,  I  forgive  him  for  the  sake  of  his 

20  ballad,  which  I  always  thought  the  prettiest  in  the  world. 

All    there    is    of    M.    Green    here,    has    been    printed 

before  ;  there  is  a  profusion  of  wit  everywhere ;  reading 

would  have  formed  his  judgment,   and  harmonised  his 

verse,  for  even  his  wood-notes  often  break  out  into  strains 

25  of  real  poetry  and  music.  The  "  School  Mistress "  ^  is 
excellent  in  its  kind  and  masterly  ;  and  (I  am  sorry  to 
differ  from  you,  but)  "London"  is  to  me  one  of  those 
few  imitations  that  have  all  the  ease  and  all  the  spirit  of 
an  original.     The  same  man's  verses  ^  on  the  opening  of 

1  Dodsley's  Collection  0/ Poems  (1748). 

2  By  W.  Shenstone. 
8  Dr.  Johnson's. 


PROSE.  83 

Garrick's  theatre  are  far  from  bad.     Mr.  Dyer  (here  you  30 
will  despise  me  highly)  has  more  of  poetry  in  his  imagina- 
tion than  almost   any  of   our  number  ;  ^   but  rough  and 
injudicious.      I  should  range   Mr.  Bramston  only  a  step 
or  two  above  Dr.  King,  who  is  as  low  in  my  estimation 
as  in  yours.      Dr.  Evans  is  a  furious  madman  ;  and  pre-  35 
existence  is  nonsense  in  all  her  altitudes.     Mr.  Lyttleton 
is   a  gentle   elegiac   person.      Mr.  ^Nugent   sure   did  not 
write  his  own  Ode.     I  like  Mr.  Whitehead's  little  poems, 
I  mean  the  Ode  on  a  Tent,  the  Verses  to  Garrick,  and 
particularly   those    to    Charles    Townsend,   better    than  40 
anything  I  had  seen  before  of  him,     *     *     * 


A   BALLAD. 

TO    THE    REV.    WILLIAM    MASON. 

Cambridge,  Saturday,  June,  \.i757\ 

*  *  *  I  WISH  you  were  here,  for  I  am  tired  of  writing 

such    stuff ;    and    besides,    I    have    got    the    old    Scotch 

ballad^  on  which  Douglas  was  founded  ;   it  is  divine,  and 

as  long  as  from  hence  to  Aston.      Have  you  never  seen 

it  ?     Aristotle's  best  rules  are  observed  in  it  in  a  manner    5 

that  shows  the  author  never  had  heard  of  Aristotle.     It 

begins  in  the  fifth   act  of  the  play.      You  may   read   it 

two-thirds  through  without   guessing   what   it   is   about  ; 

and  yet,  when  you  come  to  the  end,  it  is  impossible  not 

to  understand  the  whole  story.      I  send  you  the  two  first  10 

verses  — 

Gil  Maurice  was  an  Earle's  son, 

His  fame  it  wexed  udde. 

It  was  nae  for  his  grete  riches, 

Nae  for  his  mickle  pride;  15 

1  Wordsworth  thought  so  too.     See  his  Sonnet  To  the  Poet,  John 
Dyer. 

2  Child  Maurice.     (See  Child's  Ballads,  II,  263.) 


84  PROSE. 

But  it  was  for  a  ladie  gay 
That  lived  on  Carron's  side. 
"  Where  shall  I  get  a  bonny  boy 
That  will  win  hose  and  shoon, 

20  That  will  gae  to  Lord  Barnard's  ha', 

And  bid  his  ladie  come  ? 
Ye  maun  rin  this  errand,  Willie, 
And  ye  maun  rin  \\-ith  pride ; 
When  other  boys  gae  on  their  feet, 

25  On  horseback  ye  sal  ride," 

"  Ah  na,  ah  na,  my  master  dear,"  etc.  etc. 


OSSIAN. 

TO    HORACE    WALPOLE. 

[/760.] 

I  AM  SO  charmed  with  the  two  specimens  of  Erse 
poetry,  that  I  cannot  help  giving  you  the  trouble  to 
enquire  a  little  farther  about  them,  and  should  wish  to 
see   a  few  lines  of  the   original,   that   I   may  form  some 

3    slight  idea  of  the  language,  the  measures,  and  the  rhythm. 

Is  there  anything  known  of  the  author  or  authors,  and 

of  what  antiquity  are  they  supposed  to  be .''     Is  there  any 

more  to  be  had  of  equal  beauty,  or  at  all  approaching  to 

it?       I    have    been    often    told    that    the    Poem    called 

10  "  Hardicanute  "  (which  I  always  admired  and  still  admire) 
was  the  work  of  somebody  that  lived  a  few  years  ago. 
This  I  do  not  at  all  believe,  though  it  has  evidently  been 
retouched  in  places  by  some  modern  hand  :  but  however, 
I  am  authorised  by  this  report  to  ask,  whether  the  two 

15  Poems  in  question  are  certainly  antique  and  genuine. 
I  make  this  enquiry  in  quality  of  an  antiquary,  and  am 
not  otherwise  concerned  about  it  :  for,  if  I  were  sure  that 
any  one  now  living  in  Scotland  had  written  them  to 
divert  himself,  and  laugh  at  the  credulity  of  the  world,  I 


PROSE.  85 


would  undertake  a  journey  into  the   Highlands  only  for  20 
the  pleasure  of  seeing  him. 


OSSIAN. 

TO    RICHARD    STONEHEWER. 

London,  Ji{Jie  2g,  lydo. 
*  *  *  J  HAVE  received  another  Scotch  packet  with  a 
third   specimen,    inferior   in   kind   (because   it   is  merely 
description),  but  yet  full  of  nature  and  noble  wild  imagina- 
tion.    Five  Bards  pass  the  night  at  the  Castle  of  a  Chief 
(himself  a  principal  Bard);   each  goes  out  in  his  turn  to     5 
observe  the  face  of  things,  and  returns  with  an  extempore 
picture  of  the   changes  he  has  seen  ;    it  is  an  October 
night  (the  harvest-month  of  the  Highlands).     This  is  the 
whole  plan  ;  yet  there  is  a  contrivance,  and  a  preparation 
of  ideas,  that  you  would  not  expect.     The  oddest  thing  10 
is,  that  every  one  of  them  sees  Ghosts  (more  or  less). 
The   idea,    that   struck    and    surprised   me   most,   is   the 
following.     One  of  them  (describing  a  storm  of  wind  and 
rain)  says 

"  Ghosts  ride  on  the  tempest  to-night :  15 

Sweet  is  their  voice  between  the  gusts  of  wind; 
Their  songs  are  of  other  worlds  !  " 

Did  you  never  observe  {while  rocking  winds  are  piping 
loud)  that  pause,  as  the  gust  is  recollecting  itself,  and 
rising  upon  the  ear  in  a  shrill  and  plaintive  note,  like  the 
swell  of  an  ^olian  harp  ?  I  do  assure  you  there  is  20 
nothing  in  the  world  so  like  the  voice  of  a  spirit. 
Thomson  had  an  ear  sometimes :  he  was  not  deaf  to 
this  ;  and  has  described  it  gloriously,  but  given  it 
another  different  turn,  and  of  more  horror.  I  cannot 
repeat  the  lines  :  it  is  in  his  "  Winter."     There  is  another  25 


86  PROSE. 

very  fine  picture  in  one  of  them.  It  describes  the  break- 
ing of  the  clouds  after  the  storm,  before  it  is  settled  into 
a  calm,  and  when  the  moon  is  seen  by  short  intervals. 

"  The  waves  are  tumbling  on  the  lake, 
30  And  lash  the  rocky  sides. 

The  boat  is  brim-full  in  the  cove, 

The  oars  on  the  rocking  tide. 

Sad  sits  a  maid  beneath  a  cliff, 

And  eyes  the  rolling  stream : 
35  Her  lover  promised  to  come, 

She  saw  his  boat  (when  it  was  evening)  on  the  lake ; 

Are  these  his  groans  in  the  gale  ? 

Is  this  his  broken  boat  on  the  shore  ?  " 


ID 


15 


OSSIAN. 

I-O   THOMAS    WHARTON. 

\_E71dorsed  July,  1760], 
*  *  *  If  you  have  seen  Stonehewer  he  has  probably 
told  you  of  my  old  Scotch  (or  rather  Irish)  poetry.  I  am 
gone  mad  about  them.  They  are  said  to  be  translations 
(literal  and  in  prose)  from  the  Erse  tongue,  done  by  one 
Macpherson,  a  young  clergyman  in  the  Highlands.  He 
means  to  publish  a  collection  he  has  of  these  specimens 
of  antiquity,  if  it  be  antiquity  :  but  what  plagues  me  is,  I 
cannot  come  at  any  certainty  on  that  head.  I  was  so 
struck,  so  extasie  with  their  infinite  beaut}',  that  I  writ 
into  Scotland  to  make  a  thousand  enquiries.  The  letters 
I  have  in  return  are  ill  wrote,  ill  reasoned,  unsatisfactory, 
calculated  (one  would  imagine)  to  deceive  one,  and  yet 
not  cunning  enough  to  do  it  cleverly.  In  short,  the  whole 
external  evidence  would  make  one  believe  these  frag- 
ments (for  so  he  calls  them,  though  nothing  can  be  more 
entire)  counterfeit :  but  the  internal  is  so  strong  on  the 
other  side,  that  I  am  resolved  to  believe  them  genuine, 


FROSE.  87 

spite  of  the  Devil  and  the  Kirk.     It  is  impossible  to  con- 
vince me,  that  they  were  invented  by  the  same  man,  that 
writes  me  these  letters.     On  the  other  hand  it  is  almost  20 
as  hard  to  suppose,  if  they  are  original,  that  he  should  be 
able  to  translate  them  so  admirably.     What  can  one  do  "i 
since  Stonehewer  went,  I  have  received  another  of  a  very 
different    and    inferior    kind    (being    merely  descriptive) 
much  more  modern  than  the  former  (he  says)  yet  very  old  25 
too  ;  this  too  in  its  way  is  extremely  fine.      In  short  this 
man  is  the  very  Daemon  of  poetry,  or  he  has  lighted  on  a 
treasure  hid  for  ages.     The  Welch  Poets  are  also  coming 
to  light  :  I  have  seen  a  Discourse  in  MS.  about  them  (by 
one  Mr.   Evans,    a    clergyman)  with   specimens  of  their  30 
writings.     This  is  in  Latin,  and  though  it  don't  approach 
the  other,  there  are  fine  scraps  among  it. 

You  will  think  I  am  grown  mighty  poetical  of  a  sudden  ; 
you  would  think  so  still  more,  if  you  knew,  there  was  a 
Satire  prmted  against  me  and  Mason  jointly,  it  is  called  35 
Two  Odes :  ^  the  one  is  inscribed  to  Obscurity  (that  is  me) 
the  other  to  Oblivion.  It  tells  me,  what  I  never  heard 
before,  for  (speaking  of  himself)  the  Author  says,  though 
he  has, 

"  Nor  the  Pride,  nor  self-Opinion,  40 

That  possess  the  happy  Pair, 
Each  of  Taste  the  fav'rite  Minion, 
Prancing  thro'  the  desert  air  : 
Yet  shall  he  mount,  mth  classic  housings  grac'd, 
By  help  mechanick  of  equestrian  block  ;  4c 

And  all  unheedful  of  the  Critic's  mock 
Spur  his  light  courser  o'er  the  bounds  of  Taste." 

The  writer  is  a  Mr.  Colman,  who  published  the  Co?i- 
noisseur,  nephew  to  the  late  Lady  Bath,  and  a  friend  of 
Garrick's.     I  believe  his  Odes  sell  no  more  than  mine  50 

^  A  Parody  on  Gray's  Pindaric  Odes. 


88  PROSE. 

did,  for  I  saw  a  heap  of  them  lie  in  a  bookseller's  window, 
who  recommended  them  to  me  as  a  very  pretty  thing. 

If  I  did  not  mention   Tristj-am  -^  to  you,  it  was  because 
I  thought  I  had  done  so  before.     There  is   much   good 

55  fun  in  it,  and  humour  sometimes  hit  and  sometimes 
missed.  I  agree  with  your  opinion  of  it,  and  shall  see 
the  two  future  volumes  with  pleasure.  Have  you  read 
his  sermons  (with  his  own  comic  figure  at  the  head  of 
them)  ?  they  are  in  the  style,  I  think,  most  proper  for  the 

60  pulpit,  and  shew  a  very  strong  imagination  and  a  sensible 
heart  :  but  you  see  him  often  tottering  on  the  verge  of 
laughter,  and  ready  to  throw  his  periwig  in  the  face  of  his 
audience.     *     *     * 


OSSIAN. 

TO   THE    REV.    WILLIAM    MASON. 

Pembroke  Hall,  August  7,  lydo. 

*  *  *  The  Erse  Fragments  have  been  published  five 
weeks  ago  in  Scotland,  though  I  had  them  not  (by  a 
mistake)  till  last  week.  As  you  tell  me  new  things  do 
not  soon  reach  you  at  Aston,  I  enclose  what  I  can  ;  the 

5  rest  shall  follow  when  you  tell  me  whether  you  have  not 
got  it  already.  I  send  the  two  which  I  had  before,  for 
Mr.  Wood,  because  he  has  not  the  affectation  of  not 
admiring.  I  continue  to  think  them  genuine,  though  my 
reasons  for   believing  the    contrary   are   rather   stronger 

10  than  ever  :  but  I  will  have  them  antique,  for  I  never 
knew  a  Scotchman  of  my  own  time  that  could  read,  much 
less  write,  poetry ;  and  such  poetry  too  !  I  have  one 
(from  Mr.  Macpherson)  which  he  has  not  printed  :  it  is 
mere  description,  but  excellent,  too,  in  its  kind.     If  you 

15  are  good,  and  will  learn  to  admire,  I  will  transcribe   it. 

1  Sterne's  Tristram  Shandy,  published  1759. 


PROSE.  89 

Pray  send  to  Sheffield  for  the  last  Monthly  Review :  there 
is  a  deal  of  stuff  about  us  and  Mr.  Colman.  It  says  one 
of  us,  at  least,  has  always  borne  his  faculties  meekly.  I 
leave  you  to  guess  which  that  is  :  I  think  I  know.  You 
oaf,  you  must  be  meek,  must  you  ?  and  see  what  you  get 
by  it!     *     *     * 


OSSIAN. 


TO    DR.    CLARKE. 

Pembroke  Hall,  August  12,  lydo. 

*  *  *  Have  you  seen  the  Erse  Fragments  since  they 
were  printed  ?  I  am  more  puzzled  than  ever  about  their 
antiquity,  though  I  still  incline  (against  everybody's 
opinion)  to  believe  them  old.  Those  you  have  already 
seen  are  the  best  ;  though  there  are  some  others  that  are 
excellent  too. 


OSSIAN. 

TO    THOMAS    WHARTON. 

London,  October  21,  i'/6o. 

*  *  *  There  is  a  second  edition  of  the  Scotch  Frag- 
ments, yet  very  few  admire  them,  and  almost  all  take 
them  for  fictions.  I  have  a  letter  from  D.  Hume,  the 
historian,  that  asserts  them  to  be  genuine,  and  cites  the 
names  of  several  people  (that  know  both  languages)  who  5 
have  heard  them  current  in  the  mouths  of  pipers,  and 
other  illiterate  persons  in  various  and  distant  parts  of  the 
Highlands.  There  is  a  subscription  for  Mr.  Macpherson, 
which  will  enable  him  to  undertake  a  mission  among  the 
Mountaineers,  and  pick  up  all  the  scattered  remnants  of  10 
old  Poetry.  He  is  certainly  an  admirable  judge  ;  if  his 
learned  friends  do  not  pervert  or  overrule  his  taste.  *  *  * 


9©  PROSE. 

OSSIAN. 

TO   THOMAS    WHARTON. 

Pembroke  College,  January,  ij6i. 
*  *  *  For  me,  I  admire  nothing  but  "  Fingal "  (I  con- 
clude you  have  read  it  :  if  not  Stonehewer  can  lend  it 
you),  yet  I  remain,  still  in  doubt  about  the  authenticity 
of  those  poems,  though  inclining  rather  to  believe  them 
genuine  in  spite  of  the  world.  Whether  they  are  the 
inventions  of  antiquity,  or  of  a  modern  Scotchman,  either 
case  is  to  me  alike  unaccountable.     Je  m'y  pers.    *    *    * 


OSSIAN. 

TO   THE    REV.    JAMES    BROWN. 

February  ij,  ijbj. 
#  *  *    Neither  Count   Algarotti,    nor   Mr.    Howe   (I 
believe)  have  heard  of  Ossian,  the  Son  of  Fingal.     If  Mr. 
Ilowe  were   not   upon   the  wing,   and  on  his  way  home- 
wards, I  would  send  it  to  him  in  Italy.      He  would  there 

5  see,  that  Imagination  dwelt  many  hundred  years  ago  in 
all  her  pomp  on  the  cold  and  barren  mountains  of  Scot- 
land. The  truth  (I  believe)  is  that  without  any  respect 
of  climates  she  reigns  in  all  nascent  societies  of  men, 
where  the  necessities  of  life  force  every  one  to  think  and 

lo  act  much  for  himself.     Adieu  ! 


JEREMY   TAYLOR. 

TO    THE    REV.    WILLIAM    MASON. 

London,  January  22,  ij6i. 

I  HAVE  long  thought  of  reading  Jeremy  Taylor,  for  I 
am  persuaded  that  chopping  logic  in  the  pulpit,  as  our 


PROSE.  91 


divines  have  done  ever  since  the  Revolution,  is  not  the 
thing ;  but  that  imagination  and  warmth  of  expression 
are  in  their  place  there  as  much  as  on  the  stage,  moder- 
ated however,  and  chastised  a  little  by  the  purity  and 
severity  of  religion.     *     *     * 


CASTLE   OF    OTRANTO    AND    ROUSSEAU. 

TO    HORACE    WALFOLE. 

Stinday,  December  jo.,  ^7^4- 
I  HAVE  received  the  Castle  of  Otranto,  and  return  you 
my  thanks  for  it.  It  engages  our  attention  here,  makes 
some  of  us  cry  a  little,  and  all  in  general  afraid  to  go  to 
bed  o'  nights.  We  take  it  for  a  translation,  and  should 
believe  it  to  be  a  true  story,  if  it  were  not  for  St.  5 
Nicholas. 

When  your  pen  was  in  your  hand  you  might  have  been 
a  little  more  communicative,  for  though  disposed  enough 
to  believe  the  opposition  rather  consumptive,  I  am  entirely 
ignorant  of  all  the  symptoms.  Your  canonical  book  I  10 
have  been  reading  with  great  satisfaction.  He  speaketh 
as  one  having  authority.  If  Englishmen  have  any  feeling 
left,  methinks  they  must  feel  now  ;  and  if  the  Ministry 
have  any  feeling  (whom  nobody  will  suspect  of  insensi- 
bility) they  must  cut  off  the  author's  ears,  for  it  is  in  all  15 
the  forms  a  most  wicked  libel.  Is  the  old  man  and  the 
lawyer  put  on,  or  is  it  real  ?  or  has  some  real  lawyer 
furnished  a  good  part  of  the  materials,  and  another 
person  employed  them  ?  This  I  guess  ;  for  there  is  an 
uncouthness  of  diction  in  the  beginning  which  is  not  20 
supported  throughout,  though  it  now  and  then  occurs 
again,  as  if  the  writer  was  weary  of  supporting  the 
character  he  had  assumed,  when  the  subject  had  warmed 
him,  beyond  dissimulation. 


92  PROSE. 

Rousseau's  Letters  I  am  reading  heavily,  heavily  !  He 
25  justifies  himself,  till  he  convinces  me  that  he  deserved 
to  be  burnt,  at  least  that  his  book  did.  I  am  not  got 
through  him,  and  you  never  will.  Voltaire  I  detest,  and 
have  not  seen  his  book  :  I  shall  in  good  time.  You 
surprise  me,  when  you  talk  of  going  in  February.  Pray, 
30  does  all  the  minority  go  too  ?  I  hope  you  have  a  reason. 
Desperare  de  republica  is  a  deadly  sin  in  politics. 

Adieu  !  I  will  not  take  my  leave  of  you  ;  for  (you 
perceive)  this  letter  means  to  beg  another,  when  you  can 
spare  a  little. 


DAVID    HUME   AND    SKEPTICISM. 

TO    JAMES    BEATTIE. 

Pembroke  Hall,  Jtdy  2,  1770. 

I  HAVE  always  thought  David  Hume  a  pernicious 
writer,  and  believe  he  has  done  as  much  mischief  here  as 
he  has  in  his  own  country.  A  turbid  and  shallow  stream 
often  appears  to  our  apprehensions  very  deep.     A  pro- 

5  fessed  sceptic  can  be  guided  by  nothing  but  his  present 
passions  (if  he  has  any)  and  interests  ;  and  to  be  masters 
of  his  philosophy  we  need  not  his  books  or  advice,  for 
every  child  is  capable  of  the  same  thing,  without  any 
study  at  all.      Is  not  that  naivete  and  good  humour,  which 

10  his  admirers  celebrate  in  him,  owing  to  this,  that  he  has 
continued  all  his  days  an  infant,  but  one  that  has 
unhappily  been  taught  to  read  and  write  ?  That  childish 
nation,  the  French,  have  given  him  vogue  and  fashion, 
and  we,  as  usual,  have  learned  from  them  to  admire  him 

15  at  second  hand. 


PROSE,  93 

III. 

NATURE. 


EARLY   APPRECIATION. 

TO    HORACE   WALPOLE. 

September,  17^7. 

*  *  ^^  I  ARRIVED  safe  at  my  uncle's,  who  is  a  great 
hunter  in  imagination  ;  his  dogs  take  up  every  chair  in 
the  house,  so  I  am  forced  to  stand  at  this  present  writing ; 
and  though  the  gout  forbids  him  galloping  after  them 
in  the  field,  yet  he  continues  still  to  regale  his  ears  and  5 
nose  with  their  comfortable  noise  and  stink.  He  holds 
me  mighty  cheap,  I  perceive,  for  walking  when  I  should 
ride,  and  reading  when  I  should  hunt.  My  comfort 
amidst  all  this  is,  that  I  have  at  the  distance  of  half  a 
mile,  through  a  green  lane,  a  forest  (the  vulgar  call  it  a  10 
common)  all  my  own,  at  least  as  good  as  so,  for  I  spy  no 
human  thing  in  it  but  myself.  It  is  a  little  chaos  of 
mountains  and  precipices  ;  mountains,  it  is  true,  that  do 
not  ascend  much  above  the  clouds,  nor  are  the  declivities 
quite  so  amazing  as  Dover  cliff  ;  but  just  such  hills  as  15 
people  who  love  their  necks  as  well  as  I  do  may  venture 
to  climb,  and  crags  that  give  the  eye  as  much  pleasure  as 
if  they  were  more  dangerous.  Both  vale  and  hill  are 
covered  with  most  venerable  beeches,  and  other  very 
reverend  vegetables,  that,  like  most  other  ancient  people,  20 
are  always  dreaming  out  their  old  stories  to  the  winds, 

And  as  they  bow  their  hoary  tops  relate, 
In  murm'ring  sounds,  the  dark  decrees  of  fate  ; 
While  visions,  as  poetic  eyes  avow, 
■    Cling  to  each  leaf,  and  swarm  on  every  bough.  25 


94  PILOSE. 

At  the  foot  of  one  of  these  squats  me  I  (il  penseroso),  and 
there  grow  to  the  trunk  for  a  whole  morning.  The  timor- 
ous hare  and  sportive  squirrel  gambol  around  me  like 
Adam  in  Paradise,  before  he  had  an  Eve ;  but  I  think  he 
30  did  not  use  to  read  Virgil,  as  I  commonly  do  there.  *  *  * 


ALPINE    SCENERY. 

TO    MRS.     DOROTHY    GRAY. 

Lyons,   October  ij,  17 jg. 

It  is  a  fortnight  since  we  set  out  from  hence  upon  a 
little  excursion  to  Geneva.  We  took  the  longest  road, 
which  lies  through  Savoy,  on  purpose  to  see  a  famous 
monastery,    called    the    grand    Chartreuse,    and   had    no 

5  reason  to  think  our  time  lost.  After  having  travelled 
seven  days  very  slow  (for  we  did  not  change  horses,  it 
being  impossible  for  a  chaise  to  go  post  in  these  roads) 
we  arrived  at  a  little  village,  among  the  mountains  of 
Savoy,   called  ^fichelles  ;    from   thence  we   proceeded   on 

10  horses,  who  are  used  to  the  way,  to  the  mountain  of  the 
Chartreuse.  It  is  six  miles  to  the  top ;  the  road  runs 
winding  up  it,  commonly  not  six  feet  broad  ;  on  one  hand 
is  the  rock,  with  woods  of  pine-trees  hanging  overhead  ; 
on  the  other,  a  monstrous  precipice,  almost  perpendicular, 

15  at  the  bottom  of  which  rolls  a  torrent,  that  sometimes 
tumbling  among  the  fragments  of  stone  that  have  fallen 
from  on  high,  and  sometimes  precipitating  itself  down 
vast  descents  with  a  noise  like  thunder,  which  is  still 
made  greater  by  the  echo  from  the  mountains  on  each 

20  side,  concurs  to  form  one  of  the  most  solemn,  the  most 
romantic,-^  and  the  most  astonishing  scenes  I  ever  beheld  : 

1  This  word  was  not  at  that  time  often  used  in  a  favourable  sense. 


PROSE.  95 

add  to  this  the  strange  views  made  by  the  craggs  and 
clitfs  on  the  other  hand  ;  the  cascades  that  in  many  places 
throw  themselves  from  the  very  summit  down  into  the 
vale,  and  the  river  below  ;  and  many  other  particulars 
impossible  to  describe  ;  you  will  conclude  we  had  no 
occasion  to  repent  our  pains.     *     *     * 


ALPINE    SCENERY. 

TO    MRS.    DOROTHY    GRAY. 

Turin,  November  y,  i^jg- 

I  AM  this  night  arrived  here,  and  have  just  set  down  to 
rest  me  after  eight  days'  tiresome  journey.  For  the 
three  first  we  had  the  same  road  we  before  passed  through 
to  go  to  Geneva ;  the  fourth  we  turned  out  of  it,  and  for 
that  day  and  the  next  travelled  rather  among  than  upon  5 
the  Alps  ;  the  way  commonly  running  through  a  deep 
valley  by  the  side  of  the  river  Arve,  which  works  itself  a 
passage,  with  great  difficulty  and  a  mighty  noise,  among 
vast  quantities  of  rocks,  that  have  rolled  down  from  the 
mountain-tops.  The  winter  was  so  far  advanced,  as  in  10 
great  measure  to  spoil  the  beauty  of  the  prospect ; 
however,  there  was  still  somewhat  fine  remaining  amidst 
the  savageness  and  horror  of  the  place  :  the  sixth  we 
began  to  go  up  several  of  these  mountains  ;  and  as  we 
were  passing  one,  met  with  an  odd  accident  enough  :  Mr.  15 
Walpole  had  a  little  fat  black  spaniel,  that  he  was  very 
fond  of,  which  he  sometimes  used  to  set  down,  and  let  it 
run  by  the  chaise  side.  We  were  at  that  time  in  a  very 
rough  road,  not  two  yards  broad  at  most ;  on  one  side 
was  a  great  wood  of  pines,  and  on  the  other  a  vast  preci-  2a 
pice  ;  it  was  noonday,  and  the  sun  shone  bright,  when 
all  of  a  sudden,  from  the  wood-side  (which  was  as  steep 


96  PROSE. 

upwards  as  the  other  part  was  downwards),  out  rushed  a 
great  wolf,  came  close  to  the  head  of  the  horses,  seized 

25  the  dog  by  the  throat,  and  rushed  up  the  hill  again  with 
him  in  his  mouth.  This  was  done  in  less  than  a  quarter 
of  a  minute  ;  we  all  saw  it,  and  yet  the  servants  had  not 
time  to  draw  their  pistols,  or  do  anything  to  save  the  dog. 
If  he  had  not  been  there,  and  the  creature  had  thought 

30  fit  to  lay  hold  of  one  of  the  horses  ;  chaise,  and  we,  and 
all  must  inevitably  have  tumbled  above  fifty  fathoms 
perpendicular  down  the  precipice.  The  seventh  we  came 
to  Lanebourg,  the  last  town  in  Savoy ;  it  lies  at  the  foot 
of  the  famous   Mount  Cenis,  which  is  so  situated  as  to 

35  allow  no  room  for  any  way  but  over  the  very  top  of  it. 
Here  the  chaise  was  forced  to  be  pulled  to  pieces,  and 
the  baggage  and  that  to  be  carried  by  mules.  We  our- 
selves were  wrapped  up  in  our  furs,  and  seated  upon  a 
sort  of  matted  chair  without  legs,  which  is  carried  upon 

40  poles  in  the  manner  of  a  bier,  and  so  begun  to  ascend  by 
the  help  of  eight  men.  It  was  six  miles  to  the  top,  where 
a  plain  opens  itself  about  as  many  more  in  breadth, 
covered  perpetually  with  very  deep  snow,  and  in  the 
midst  of  that  a  great  lake  of  unfathomable  depth,  from 

45  whence  a  river  takes  its  rise,  and  tumbles  over  monstrous 
rocks  quite  down  the  other  side  of  the  mountain.  The 
descent  is  six  miles  more,  but  infinitely  more  steep  than 
the  going  up  ;  and  here  the  men  perfectly  fly  down  with 
you,  stepping  from  stone  to  stone  with  incredible  swift- 

50  ness  in  places  where  none  but  they  could  go  three  paces 
without  falling.  The  immensity  of  the  precipices,  the 
roaring  of  the  river  and  torrents  that  run  into  it,  the  huge 
cracks  covered  with  ice  and  snow,  and  the  clouds  below 
you  and  about  you,  are  objects  it  is  impossible  to  con- 

35  ceive  without  seeing  them  ;  and  though  we  had  heard 
many  strange  descriptions  of  the  scene,  none  of  them  at 


FROSE.  97 

all  came  up  to  it     We  were  but  five  hours  in  performing 
the  whole,  from  which  you  may  judge  of  the  rapidity  of 
the  men's  motion.     We  are  now  got  into  Piedmont,  and 
stopped  a  little  while  at  La  Ferriere,  a  small  village  about  6c 
three-quarters    of    the    way  down,    but    still    among    the 
clouds,  where  we  began  to  hear  a  new  language  spoken 
round  about  us ;   at  last  we  got  quite  down,  went  through 
the  Pas  de  Suse,  a  narrow  road  among  the  Alps,  defended 
by  two  fortresses,  and  lay  at  Bussoleno.     Next  evening  65 
through  a  fine  avenue  of  nine  miles  in  length,  as  straight 
as  a  line,  we  arrived  at  this  city,  which,  as  you  know,  is 
the  capital  of  the  Principality,  and  the  residence  of  the 
King  of  Sardinia.  *  *  *  We  shall  stay  here,  I  believe,  a 
fortnight,  and  proceed  for  Genoa,  which  is  three  or  four  70 
days'  journey  to  go  post.  —  I  am,  etc. 


ALPINE   SCENERY. 

TO    RICHARD   WEST. 

Turin,  November  16,  lyjg- 
*  #  *  J  OWN  I  have  not,  as  yet,   anywhere  met  with 
those  grand  and  simple  works  of  Art,  that  are  to  amaze 
one,  and  whose  sight  one  is  to  be  the  better  for  :   but 
those  of  Nature  have  astonished  me  beyond  expression. 
In  our  little  journey  up  to  the  Grande  Chartreuse,  I  do    5 
not  remember  to  have  gone  ten  paces  without  an  exclama- 
tion, that  there  was  no  restraining.     Not  a  precipice,  not 
a  torrent,  not  a  cliff,  but  is  pregnant  with  religion  and 
poetry.      There   are   certain   scenes   that  would   awe   an 
atheist  into  belief,  without  the  help  of  other  argument,  ic 
One  need  not  have  a  very  fantastic  imagination  to  see 
spirits  there  at   noonday ;    you   have   Death   perpetually 
before  your  eyes,  only  so  far  removed,  as  to  compose  the 


98  PROSE. 

mind  without    frighting   it.      I    am   well    persuaded    St. 

15  Bruno  was  a  man  of  no  common  genius,  to  choose  such 
a  situation  for  his  retirement ;  and  perhaps  should  have 
been  a  disciple  of  his,  had  1  been  born  in  his  time.  You 
may  believe  Abelard  and  Heloise  were  not  forgot  upon 
this  occasion.     If  I  do  not  mistake,  I  saw  you  too  every 

20  now  and  then  at  a  distance  along  the  trees  ;  il  me  semble, 
que  j'ai  vu  ce  chien  de  visage  Ik  quelque  part.  You  seemed 
to  call  to  me  from  the  other  side  of  the  precipice,  but  the 
noise  of  the  river  below  was  so  great,  that  I  really  could 
not  distinguish  what  you  said  ;  it  seemed  to  have  a  cadence 

25  like  verse.  In  your  next  you  will  be  so  good  to  let  me 
know  what  it  was.  The  week  we  have  since  passed 
among  the  Alps,  has  not  equalled  the  single  day  upon 
tftat  mountain,  because  the  winter  was  rather  too  far 
advanced,   and  the  weather  a  little  foggy.     However,  it 

30  did  not  want  its  beauties ;  the  savage  rudeness  of  the 
view  is  inconceivable  without  seeing  it :  I  reckoned  in 
one  day,  thirteen  cascades,  the  least  of  which  was,  I  dare 
say,  one  hundred  feet  in  height.  =*  *  *  Mont  Cenis, 
I  confess,  carries  the  permission  mountains  have  of  being 

35  frightful  rather  too  far  ;  and  its  horrors  were  accompanied 
with  too  much  danger  to  give  one  time  to  reflect  upon 
their  beauties.  There  is  a  family  of  the  Alpine  monsters 
I  have  mentioned,  upon  its  very  top,  that  in  the  middle 
of  winter  calmly  lay  in  their  stock  of  provisions  and  firing, 

40  and  so  are  buried  in  their  hut  for  a  month  or  two  under 
the  snow.  *  =^  * 

MOUNTAINS. 

TO   THE    REV.    WILLIAM    MASON. 

I  AM  returned  from  Scotland  charmed  with  my  expedi- 
tion ;  it  is  of  the   Highlands  I  speak  ;  the  Lowlands  are 


PROSE.  99 

worth  seeing-  once,  but  the  mountains  are  ecstatic,  and 
ought  to  be  visited  in  pilgrimage  once  a  year.     None  but 
those  monstrous  creatures  of  God  know  how  to  join  so    5 
much  beauty  with  so  mucli  liorror.     A  fig  for  your  poets, 
painters,  gardeners,  and  clergymen,  that  have  not  been 
among    them ;     their    imagination    can    be    made    up    of 
nothing    but    bowling-greens,     flowering    shrubs,    horse- 
ponds,  Fleet  ditches,   shell  grottoes,   and  Chinese  rails.  lo 
Then  I  had  so  beautiful  an  autumn,  Italy  could  hardly 
produce  a  nobler  scene,  and  this  so  sweetly  contrasted 
with    that    perfection    of    nastiness,    and    total    want    of 
accommodation,  that  Scotland  only  can  supply.     Oh,  you 
would  have  blessed  yourself.      I  shall  certainly  go  again  ;  15 
what  a  pity  it  is  I  cannot  draw,  nor  describe,  nor  ride  on 
horseback. 

,Ua  j^  ^  ^  ^  ^  ^  ^U  -4^ 

TT  TT  TT  "TT  •TT  TT  -TT  W  TT 


JOURNAL   IN   THE   LAKES.i 

JOURNAL,  30    SEPT.  1769. 

Wind  at  N.  W. ;  clouds  and  sunshine.     A  mile  and  a 
half  from  Brough  on   a  hill  lay  a  great  army  encamped. 
To  the  left  opened  a  fine  valley  with  green  meadows  and 
hedge  rows,   a  gentleman's  house  peeping  forth  from  a    - 
grove   of    old    trees.     On   a   nearer   approach,    appeared    ^ 
myriads  of  horses  and  cattle  in  the  road  itself  and  in  all 
the  fields   round  me,   a  brisk  stream  hurrying  cross  the 
way,    thousands    of   clean    healthy  people   in   their    best 
party-coloured     apparel,     farmers     and     their     families, 
esquires  and  their  daughters,  hastening  up  from  the  dales  ic 
and  down  the  fells  on  every  side,  glittering  in  the  sun 

1  This  Journal  was  kept  merely  for  the  amusement  of  Dr.  Wharton, 
whose  illness  prevented  him  from  accompanying  Gray. 


loo  PROSE. 

and  pressing  forward  to  join  the  throng :  while  the  dark 
hills,  on  many  of  whose  tops  the  mists  were  yet  hanging, 
served  as  a  contrast  to  this  gay  and  moving  scene,  which 
continued  for  near  two  miles  more  along  the  road,  and 
^  the  crowd  (coming  towards  it)  reached  on  as  far  as 
Appleby. 

On  the  ascent  of  the  hill  above  Appleby  the  thick 
hanging  wood  and  the  long  reaches  of  the  Eden  (rapid, 
clear,  and  full  as  ever)  winding  below  with  views  of  the 

10  castle  and  town  gave  much  employment  to  the  mirror  ;  ^ 
but  the  sun  was  wanting  and  the  sky  overcast,  Oats 
and  barley  cut  everywhere,  but  not  carried  in.  Passed 
Kirby-thore,  Sir  W.  Dalston's  house  at  Acorn-Bank, 
Whinfield  Park,  Hart-horn  Oaks,  Countess-Pillar,  Broug- 

15  ham-Castle,  Mr.  Brown  (one  of  the  Six  Clerks)  his  large 
new  house,  crossed  the  Eden  and  the  Eimot  (pronounce 
Eeman)  with  its  green  vale,  and  at  three  o'clock  dined 
with  Mrs.  Buchanan,  at  Penrith^  on  trout  and  partridge. 
In  the  afternoon  walked  up  the  Beacon-hill  a  mile  to  the 

20  top,  saw  Whinfield  and  Lowther  Parks,  and  through  an 
opening  in  the  bosom  of  that  cluster  of  mountains,  which 
the  Doctor  ^  well  remembers,  the  lake  of  Ulz-water,  with 
the  craggy  tops  of  a  hundred  nameless  hills.  These  to 
W.  and  S.  ;  to  the  N.  a  great  extent  of  black  and  dreary 

2^  plains  ;  to  E.  Crossfell  just  visible  through  mists  and 
vapours  hovering  round  it. 

October  i.  Wind  at  S.  W. :  a  gray  autumnal  day,  air 
perfectly  calm  and  gentle.  Went  to  see  Ulz-water,  five 
miles  distant.     Soon  left  the  Keswick  road,  and  turned 

30  to  the  left  through  shady  lanes  along  the  vale  of  Eema?t, 

1  Mr.  Gray  carried  usually  with  him  on  these  tours  a  plano-convex 
mirror,  of  about  four  inches  diameter,  on  a  black  foib,  and  bound  up 
like  a  pocket-book.  —  Mason. 

2  Thomas  Wharton. 


PROSM.  .^  >V  ^   >«IOl 

which  runs   rapidly  on  near  the  way,   rippling  over  the 
stones.      To  the  right  is  Deh?iaine,  a  large  fabric  of  pale 
red  stone,  with  nine  windows  in  front,  and  seven  on  the 
side  built  by  Mr.  Hassle,  behind  it  a  line  lawn  surrounded 
by  woods  and  a  long  rocky  eminence  rising  over  them.     ^ 
A  clear  and  brisk  rivulet  runs  by  the  house  to  join  the 
Eeman,  whose  course  is  in  sight  and  at  a  small  distance. 
Farther   on   appears   Hatton   St.  John,    a   castle-like    old 
mansion  of  ^Ir.  Huddleston.     Approached  Duiwiallert,  a 
fine  pointed  hill,  covered  with  wood  planted  by  old  Mr.  lo 
Hassle,  before  mentioned,  who  lives  always  at  home,  and 
delights  in  planting.     Walked  over  a  spungy  meadow  or 
two  and  began  to  mount  this  hill  through  a  broad  and 
strait  green  alley  among  the  trees,   and  with   some   toil 
gained  the  summit.      From  hence  saw  the  lake  opening  15 
directly  at  my  feet  majestic  in  its  calmness,  clear   and 
smooth  as  a  blue  mirror,   with  winding  shores  and  low 
points  of  land  covered  with  green  inclosures,  white  farm 
houses  looking  out  among  the  trees,  and  cattle  feeding. 
The  water  is  almost  every  where  bordered  with  cultivated  20 
lands  gently  sloping  upwards  till  they  reach  the  feet  of 
the  mountains,  which  rise  very  rude  and  awful  with  their 
broken  tops  on  either  hand :   directly  in  front,  at  better 
than  three  miles  distance,  Place  Fell.,  one  of  the  bravest 
among  them,  pushes  its  bold  broad  breast  into  the  midst  25 
of  the  lake  and  forces  it  to  alter  its  course,  forming  first 
a  large  bay  to  the  left,  and  then  bending  to  the  right. 

I  descended  Dimmallert  again  by  a  side  avenue,  that 
was  only  not  perpendicular,  and  came  to  Barton  bridge 
over  the  Eeman.,  then  walking  through  a  path  in  the  wood  y^ 
round  the  bottom  of  the  hill  came  forth,  where  the  Ee7nan 
issues  out  of  the  lake,  and  continued  my  way  along  its 
western  shore  close  to  the  water,  and  generally  on  a  level 
with  it.     Saw  a  cormorant  flying  over  it  and  fishing. 


I02  TROSE, 

The  figure  of  Ulz-water  nothing  resembles  that  laid 
down  in  our  maps :  it  is  9  miles  long,  and  (at  widest) 
under  a  mile  in  breadth.  After  extending  itself  three 
miles  and  a  half  in  a  line  to  S.  \\.  it  turns  at  the  foot  of 
r  P/ace  Fell,  almost  due  W.  and  is  here  not  twice  the 
breadth  of  the  Thames  at  London.  It  is  soon  again 
interrupted  by  the  roots  of  Helvellyn,  a  lofty  and  very 
rugged  mountain,  and  spreading  again  turns  off  to  S.  E. 
and  is  lost  among  the  deep  recesses  of  the  hills.     To  this 

10  second  turning  I  pursued  my  way  about  4  miles  along  its 
borders  beyond  a  village  scattered  among  trees,  and 
called  Water- Mallock^  in  a  pleasant  grave  day,  perfectly 
calm  and  warm,  but  without  a  gleam  of  sunshine.  Then 
the   sky   seeming    to    thicken    the   valley  to  grow  more 

15  desolate,  and  evening  drawing  on,  I  returned  by  the  way 
I  came  to  Penrith. 

October  2.  \\'ind  at  S.  E.  ;  sky  clearing,  Cross  Fell 
misty,  but  the  outline  of  the  other  hills  very  distinct. 
Set  out  at  10  for  Keswick,  by  the  road  we  went  in   1767. 

20  Saw  Grey  stock  town  and  castle  to  the  right,  which  lie 
only  3  miles  (over  the  Fells)  from  Ulz-water.  Passed 
through  Pcjiradock  and  Threlcot  at  the  feet  of  Saddleback^ 
whose  furrowed  sides  were  gilt  by  noonday  sun,  while  its 
brow  appeared  of  a  sad  purple  from  the  shadow  of  the 

25  clouds,  as  they  sailed  slowly  by  it.  The  broad  and  green 
valley  of  Gardies  and  Lowside,  with  a  swift  stream  glitter- 
ing among  the  cottages  and  meadows  lay  to  the  left ;  and 
the  much  finer  (but  narrower)  valley  of  St.  John's  opening 
into  it.     Hill-top,  the  large,  though  low,   mansion  of  the" 

30  Gaskarths,  now  a  farm-house,  seated  on  an  eminence 
among  woods  under  a  steep  fell,  was  what  appeared  the 
most  conspicuous,  and  beside  it  a  great  rock  like  some 
ancient  tower  nodding  to  its  fall.  Passed  by  the  side  of 
Skiddaw,  and  its  cub  called  Latter  rig ;  and  saw  from  an 


PROSE.  103 

eminence,  at  two  miles  distance,  the  vale  of  Elysium  in 
all  its  verdure,  the  sun  then  playing  on  the  bosom  of  the 
lake,  and  lighting  up  all  the  mountains  with  its  lustre. 

Dined  by  2    o'clock   at   the   Queen's   head,   and   then 
straggled  out  alone  to  the  Parsonage^  fell  down  on   my     1; 
back  across  a  dirty  lane,  with  my  glass  open  in  one  hand, 
but  broke  only  my  knuckles,  staid  nevertheless,  and  saw 
the  sun  set  in  all  its  glory. 

October  3.  Wind  at  S.  E. ;  a  heavenly  day.  Rose  at 
7,  and  walked  out  under  the  conduct  of  my  landlord  to  10 
Borrodale.  The  grass  was  covered  with  a  hoar  frost, 
which  soon  melted,  and  exhaled  in  a  thin  blueish  smoke. 
Crossed  the  meadows  obliquely,  catching  a  diversity  of 
views  among  the  hills  over  the  lake  and  islands,  and 
changing  prospect  at  every  ten  paces  ;  left  Cockshut  and  15 
Castlehill  (which  we  formerly  mounted)  behind  me,  and 
drew  near  the  foot  of  Walla-crag^  whose  bare  and  rocky 
brow,  cut  perpendicularly  down  above  400  feet,  as  I 
guess,  awef ully  overlooks  the  w^ay ;  our  path  here  tends 
to  the  left,  and  the  ground  gently  rising,  and  covered  20 
with  a  glade  of  scattering  trees  and  bushes  on  the  very 
margin  of  the  water,  opens  both  ways  the  most  delicious 
view,  that  my  eyes  ever  beheld.  Behind  you  are  the 
magnificent  heights  of  Walla-crag ;  opposite  lie  the  thick 
hanging  woods  of  Lord  Egremont,  and  Newland  valley,  25 
with  green  and  smiling  fields  embosomed  in  the  dark 
cliffs ;  to  the  left  the  jaws  of  Borrodale^  with  that  turbu- 
lent chaos  of  mountain  behind  mountain,  rolled  in 
confusion  ;  beneath  you,  and  stretching  far  away  to  the 
right,  the  shining  purity  of  the  Lake^  just  ruffled  by  the  3c 
breeze,  enough  to  shew  it  is  alive,  reflecting  rocks,  woods, 
fields,  and  inverted  tops  of  mountains,  with  the  white 
buildings  of  Keswick^  Crosthwait  church,  and  Skiddaw 
for  a  back  ground  at  a  distance.     Oh !   Doctor  !   I  never 


I04  PROSE. 

wished  more  for  you ;  and  pray  think,  how  the  glass 
played  its  part  in  such  a  spot,  which  is  called  Carf-close- 
reeds  ;  I  chuse  to  set  down  these  barbarous  names,  that 
any  body  may  enquire  on  the  place,  and  easily  find  the 
5  particular  station,  that  I  mean.  This  scene  continues  to 
Barrow-gate^  and  a  little  farther,  passing  a  brook  called 
Barrow-heck^  we  entered  Borrodale.  The  crags,  named 
Lodoor-baJiks,  now  begin  to  impend  terribly  over  your 
way ;   and  more  terribly,  when  you  hear,  that  three  years 

lo  since  an  immense  mass  of  rock  tumbled  at  once  from  the 
brow,  and  barred  all  access  to  the  dale  (for  this  is  the 
only  road)  till  they  could  work  their  way  through  it. 
Luckily  no  one  was  passing  at  the  time  of  this  fall ;  but 
down  the  side  of  the  mountain,  and  far  into  the  lake  lie 

15  dispersed  the  huge  fragments  of  this  ruin  in  all  shapes 
and  in  all  directions.  Something  farther  we  turned  aside 
into  a  coppice,  ascending  a  little  in  front  of  Lodoor  water- 
fall, the  height  appears  to  be  about  200  feet,  the  quantity 
of  water  not  great,  though  (these  three  days  excepted)  it 

20  had  rained  daily  in  the  hills  for  near  two  months  before  : 
but  then  the  stream  was  nobly  broken,  leaping  from  rock 
to  rock,  and  foaming  with  fury.  On  one  side  a  towering 
crag,  that  spired  up  to  equal,  if  not  overtop,  the  neighbour- 
ing cliffs  (this  lay  all  in  shade  and  darkness)  on  the  other 

25  hand  a  rounder  broader  projecting  hill  shagged  with 
wood  and  illumined  by  the  sun,  which  glanced  sideways 
on  the  upper  part  of  the  cataract.  The  force  of  the 
water  wearing  a  deep  channel  in  the  ground  hurries  away 
to  join  the  lake.     We  descended  again,   and  passed  the 

30  stream  over  a  rude  bridge.  Soon  after  we  came  under 
Gowder  crag,  a  hill  more  formidable  to  the  eye  and  to  the 
apprehension  than  that  of  Lodoor ;  the  rocks  a-top,  deep- 
cloven  perpendicularly  by  the  rains,  hanging  loose  and 
nodding  forwards,   seem  just  starting  from  their  base  in 


FROSE.  105 

shivers  ;   the  whole  way  down,  and  the  road  on  both  sides 

is  strewed  witTi  piles  of  the  fragments  strangely  thrown 

across  each  other,   and  of  a  dreadful  bulk.     The  place 

reminds   one   of    those    passes   in   the    Alps,   where    the 

guides  tell  you  to  move  on  with  speed,  and  say  nothing,    5 

iest   the    agitation    of  the   air   should   loosen   the   snows 

above,   and  bring  down  a  mass,  that  would  overwhelm  a 

caravan.     I  took  their  counsel  here  and  hastened  on  in 

silence. 

Non  ragionam  di  lor  ;  ma  guarda,  e  passa  !  10 

The  hills  here  are  clothed  all  up  their  steep  sides  with 
oak,  ash,  birch,  holly,  &c.  :  some  of  it  has  been  cut  40 
years  ago,  some  within  these  8  years,  yet  all  is  sprung 
again  green,  flourishing,  and  tall  for  its  age,  in  a  place 
where  no  soil  appears  but  the  staring  rock,  and  where  a  15 
man  could  scarce  stand  upright. 

Met  a  civil  young  farmer  overseeing  his  reapers  (for  it 
is  oat-harvest  here)  who  conducted  us  to  a  neat  white 
house  in  the  village  of  Grange,  which  is  built  on  a  rising 
ground  in  the  midst  of  a  valley.  Round  it  the  mountains  20 
form  an  awful  amphitheatre,  and  through  it  obliquely 
runs  the  Derwent  clear  as  glass,  and  shewing  under  its 
bridge  every  trout  that  passes.  Beside  the  village  rises 
a  round  eminence  of  rock,  covered  entirely  with  old  trees, 
nnd  over  that  more  proudly  towers  Castle-crag,  invested  25 
also  with  wood  on  its  sides,  and  bearing  on  its  naked 
Lop  some  traces  of  a  fort  said  to  be  Roman.  By  the  side 
of  this  hill,  which  almost  blocks  up  the  way,  the  valley 
turns  to  the  left  and  contracts  its  dimensions,  till  there  is 
hardly  any  road  but  the  rocky  bed  of  the  river.  The  30 
wood  of  the  mountains  increases  and  their  summits  grow 
loftier  to  the  eye,  and  of  more  fantastic  forms :  among 
them  appear  Eagle's  Cliffy  Dove's-Nest,  Whitedale-pike^ 
&c.,  celebrated  names  in  the  annals  of  Keswick.     The 


io6  PROSE. 

dale  opens  about  four  miles  higher  till  you  come  to  Sea 
Whaite  (where  lies  the  way  mounting  the  hills  to  the 
right,  that  leads  to  the  Wadd-Diiiies)  all  farther  access  is 
here  barred  to  prying  mortals,  only  there  is  a  little  path 
5  winding  over  the  Fells,  and  for  some  weeks  in  the  year 
passable  to  the  Dale's-men  ;  but  the  mountains  know 
well,  that  these  innocent  people  will  not  reveal  the 
mysteries  of  their  ancient  kingdom,  the  reign  of  Chaos 
and  Old  Night.     Only  I  learned,  that  this  dreadful  road, 

10  dividing  again  leads  one  branch  to  Ravenglas,  and  the 
other  to  Hawks  head. 

For  me  I  went  no  farther  than  the  farmer's  (better 
than  4  m;  from  Keswick)  at  Grange:  his  mother  and  he 
brought  us  butter,   that  Siserah  would  have  jumped  at, 

15  though  not  in  a  lordly  dish,  bowls  of  milk,  thin  oaten 
cakes,  and  ale ;  and  we  had  carried  a  cold  tongue  thither 
with  us.  Our  farmer  was  himself  the  man,  that  last  year 
plundered  the  eagle's  eirie :  all  the  dale  are  up  in  arms 
on  such  an  occasion,  for  they  lose  abundance  of  lambs 

20  yearly,  not  to  mention  hares,  partridge,  grouse,  &c.  He 
was-  let  down  from  the  cliff  in  ropes  to  the  shelf  of  rock, 
on  which  the  nest  was  built,  the  people  above  shouting 
and  hollowing  to  fright  the  old  birds,  which  flew  scream- 
ing round,  but  did  not  dare  to  attack  him.     He  brought 

25  off  the  eaglet  (for  there  is  rarely  more  than  one)  and  an 
addle  egg.  The  nest  was  roundish  and  more  than  a  yard 
over,  made  of  twigs  twisted  together.  Seldom  a  year 
passes  but  they  take  the  brood  or  eggs,  and  sometimes 
they   shoot   one,    sometimes    the    other   parent,   but   the 

30  survivor  has  always  found  a  mate  (probably  in  Ireland), 
and  they  breed  near  the  old  place.  By  his  description  I 
learn,  that  this  species  is  the  Erne  (the  Vultur  Albicilla 
of  Linnaeus  in  his  last  edition,  but  in  yours  Falco  Albicilla) 
so  consult  him  and  Pennant  about  it. 


PROSE.  107 

Walked  leisurely  home  the  way  we  came,  but  saw  a 
new  landscape :  the  features  indeed  were  the  same  in 
part,  but  many  new  ones  were  disclosed  by  the  midday 
sun,  and  the  tints  were  entirely  changed.  Take  notice 
this  w^as  the  best  or  perhaps  the  only  day  for  going  up  ^ 
Skiddaw,  but  I  thought  it  better  employed:  it  was 
perfectly  serene,  and  hot  as  Midsummer. 

In  the  evening  walked  alone  down  to  the  Lake  by  the 
side  of  Crow-Park  after  sun-set  and  saw  the  solemn 
colouring  of  night  draw  on,  the  last  gleam  of  sunshine  10 
fading  away  on  the  hill-tops,  the  deep  serene  of  the 
waters,  and  the  long  shadows  of  the  mountains  thrown 
across  them,  till  they  nearly  touched  the  hithermost 
shore.  At  distance  heard  the  murmur  of  many  waterfalls 
not  audible  in  the  day-time.  Wished  for  the  Moon,  but  15 
she  was  dark  to  me  a?id  silent,  hid  i7i  her  vacant  ijiterlu7iar 
cave. 

October  4.  Wind  E. ;  clouds  and  sunshine,  and  in  the 
course  of  the  day  a  few  drops  of  rain.  Walked  to  Crow- 
Park,  now  a  rough  pasture,  once  a  glade  of  ancient  oaks,  2c 
whose  large  roots  still  remain  on  the  ground,  but  nothing 
has  sprung  from  them.  If  one  single  tree  had  remained, 
this  would  have  been  an  unparalleled  spot  ;  and  Smith 
judged  right,  when  he  took  his  print  of  the  Lake  from 
hence,  for  it  is  a  gentle  eminence,  not  too  high,  on  the  25 
very  margin  of  the  water  and  commanding  it  from  end  to 
end,  looking  full  into  the  gorge  of  Borrodale.  I  prefer  it 
even  to  Cockshut-hill,  which  lies  beside  it,  and  to  which 
I  walked  in  the  afternoon  :  It  is  covered  with  young  trees 
both  sown  and  planted,  oak,  spruce,  Scotch-fir,  &c.,  all  3c 
which  thrive  wonderfully.  There  is  an  easy  ascent  to 
the  top,  and  the  view  far  preferable  to  that  on  Castle- 
hill  (which  you  remember)  because  this  is  lower  and 
nearer  to  the  Lake :  for  I  find  all  points,  that  are  much 


lo8  PROSE. 

elevated,  spoil  the  beauty  of  the  valley,  and  make  its 
parts  (which  are  not  large)  look  poor  and  diminutive. 
While  I  was  here,  a  little  shower  fell,  red  clouds 
came  marching  up  the  hills  from  the  east,  and  part 
5  of  a  bright  rainbow  seemed  to  rise  along  the  side  of 
Castle-hill. 

From  hence  I  got  to  the  Fa7'sonage  a  little  before 
sunset,  and  saw  in  my  glass  a  picture,  that  if  I  could 
transmit  to  you,  and  fix  it  in  all  the  softness  of  its  living 

lo  colours,  would  fairly  sell  for  a  thousand  pounds.  This  is 
the  sweetest  scene  I  can  yet  discover  in  point  of  pastoral 
beauty.     The  rest  are  in  a  sublimer  style. 

October  5.  Wind  N.  E.  Clouds  and  sunshine.  Walked 
through  the  meadows  and  corn-fields  to  the  Derwent  and 

15  crossing  it  went  up  How-hill.  It  looks  along  the  Basinth- 
waite  water  and  sees  at  the  same  time  the  course  of  the 
river,  and  a  part  of  the  upper  lake  with  a  full  view  of 
Skiddaw.  Then  I  took  my  way  through  Portingskall 
village  to  the  Park,  a  hill  so  called  covered  entirely  with 

20  wood :  it  is  all  a  mass  of  crumbling  slate.  Passed  round 
its  foot  between  the  trees  and  the  edge  of  the  water,  and 
came  to  a  Peninsula  that  juts  out  into  the  lake,  and  looks 
along  it  both  ways.  In  front  rises  Walla-crag,  and 
Castle-hill,  the  town,  the  road  to   Penrith,   Skiddaw  and 

25  Saddle-back.  Returning  met  a  brisk  and  cold  North 
Eastern  blast,  that  ruffled  all  the  surface  of  the  lake  and 
made  it  rise  in  little  waves  that  broke  at  the  foot  of  the 
wood.  After  dinner  walked  up  the  Penrith  road  two 
miles  or  more  and  turning  into  a  corn-field  to  the  right, 

30  called  Castle-Rigg,  saw  a  Druid  circle  of  large  stones  108 
feet  in  diameter,  the  biggest  not  eight  feet  high,  but  most 
of  them  still  erect :  They  are  fifty  in  number,  the  valley 
of  Naddic  appeared  in  sight,  and  the  fells  of  St.  John's, 
particularly    the     summits     of     CaU/iideca?n     (called    by 


PROSE.  109 

Camden,  Casticand)  and  Helvellyii,  said  to  be  as  high  as 
Skiiidaiv,  and  to  arise  from  a  much  higher  base.  A 
shower  came  on,  and  1  returned. 

October  6.  Wind  E.  ;  clouds  and  sun.  Went  in  a 
chaise  eight  miles  along  the  west  side  of  Bassinthwaite-  5 
water,  to  Oitsc-hxidge.  (pronounce  Eivs  bridge)  the  road  in 
some  part  made,  and  very  good,  the  rest  slippery  and 
dangerous  cart-road,  or  narrow  rugged  lanes,  but  no 
precipices :  it  runs  directly  along  the  foot  of  Skiddaw. 
Opposite  to  Thornthwaite  falls,  and  the  brows  of  Widhope-  10 
brows  (covered  to  the  top  with  wood)  a  very  beautiful 
view  opens  down  the  lake,  which  is  narrower  and  longer 
than  that  of  Keswick,  less  broken  into  bays  and  without 
islands,  at  the  foot  of  it  a  few  paces  from  the  brink  gently 
sloping  upward  stands  Armaihwaite  in  a  thick  grove  of  15 
Scotch  firs,  commanding  a  noble  view  directly  up  the 
lake.  At  a  small  distance  behind  the  house  is  a  large 
extent  of  wood,  and  still  behind  this  a  ridge  of  cultivated 
hills,  on  which  (according  to  the  Keswick  Proverb)  the 
sun  always  shines.  The  inhabitants  here  on  the  contrary  20 
call  the  vale  of  Derwent-water  the  Devil's  C/ia7?iber-Pot, 
and  pronounce  the  name  of  Skiddaw- Fell  (which  termi- 
nates here)  with  a  sort  of  terror  and  aversion.  Ar7?iath- 
7vaite-hoiise  is  a  modern  fabric,  not  large,  and  built  of 
dark  red  stone,  belonging  to  Mr.  Speddi?ig,  whose  grand-  25 
father  was  steward  to  old  Sir  James  Lowther,  and  bought 
this  estate  of  the  Hi77iers.  So  you  must  look  for  Mr. 
Michell  in  some  other  country.  The  sky  was  overcast 
and  the  wind  cool,  so  after  dining  at  a  public  house, 
which  stands  here  near  the  bridge  (that  crosses  the  3^ 
Derwent  just  where  it  issues  from  the  lake),  and  saunter- 
ing a  little  by  the  water-side,  I  came  home  again.  The 
turnpike  is  finished  from  Cockermouth  hither  (five  miles) 
and   is   carrying   on   to   Penrith  ;    several   little   showers 


no  PROSE. 

to-day.     A  man  came  in,  who  said  there  was  snow  on 
Cross-fell  this  morning. 

Oct.  7.  Market  day  here.  Wind,  North  East.  Clouds 
and  sunshine :  Httle  showers  at  intervals  all  day :  yet 
5  walked  in  the  morning  to  Crow-park,  and  in  the  evening 
up  Penrith  road :  the  clouds  came  rolling  up  the  mount- 
ains all  round  very  unpromising,  yet  the  moon  shone  at 
intervals,  it  was  too  damp  to  go  towards  the  lake. 
To-morrow  mean  to  bid  farewell  to  Keswick. 

10  Botany  might  be  studied  here  in  perfection  at  another 
season  because  of  the  great  variety  of  soils  and  elevations 
all  lying  within  a  small  compass.  I  observed  nothing 
but  several  curious  Lichens,  and  plenty  of  Gale,  or  Dutch 
Myrtle  perfuming  the  borders  of  the  lake.     This  year  the 

15  Wadd-mine  had  been  opened  (which  is  done  once  in  five 
years)  it  is  taken  out  in  lumps  sometimes  as  big  as  a 
man's  fist,  and  will  undergo  no  preparation  by  fire,  not 
being  fusible.  When  it  is  pure,  soft,  black,  and  close 
grained,  it  is  worth  sometimes  30  shillings  a  pound.     The 

20  mine  lies  about  a  mile  up  the  Fells,  near  Sea-iuaite^  at  the 
head  of  Borrodale.  There  are  no  charr  ever  taken  in 
these  lakes,  but  plenty  in  Buttermere-water,  which  lies  a 
little  way  north  of  Borrodale,  about  Martlemas,  which  are 
potted  here.     They  sow  chiefly  oats  and  bigg  here,  which 

25  are  now  cutting  and  still  on  the  ground.  There  is  some 
hay  not  yet  got  in.  The  rains  have  done  much  hurt ;  yet 
observe,  the  soil  is  so  thin  and  light,  that  no  day  has 
passed,  in  which  I  could  not  walk  out  with  ease,  and  you 
know,  I  am  no  lover  of  dirt.     Their  wheat  comes  from 

30  Cockermouth  or  Penrith.  Fell-mutton  is  now  in  season 
for  about  six  weeks ;  it  grows  fat  on  the  mountains,  and 
nearly  resembles  venison :  excellent  pike  and  perch  (here 
called  bass)  trout  is  out  of  season:  partridge  in  great 
plenty. 


PROSE.  Ill 

Receipt  to  dress  Perch  (for  Mrs.  Wharton).  "Wash, 
but  neither  scale,  nor  gut  them.  Broil  till  they  are 
enough,  then  pull  out  the  fins,  and  open  them  along  the 
back,  take  out  the  bone  and  all  the  inwards  without 
breaking  them :  put  in  a  good  lump  of  butter  and  salt,  5 
clap  the  sides  together,  till  it  melts,  and  serve  very  hot ; 
it  is  excellent.     The  skin  must  not  be  eaten." 

October  8th.  Bid  farewell  to  Keswick  and  took  the 
Ambleside  road  in  a  gloomy  morning  ;  wind  east  and 
afterwards  north  east ;  about  two  miles  from  the  town  10 
mounted  an  eminence  called  Castle  Rigg^  and  the  sun 
breaking  out  discovered  the  most  beautiful  view  I  have 
yet  seen  of  the  whole  valley  behind  me,  the  two  lakes, 
the  river,  the  mountain,  all  in  their  glory !  had  almost  a 
mind  to  have  gone  back  again.  The  road  in  some  little  15 
patches  is  not  completed,  but  good  country  road  through 
sound,  but  narrow  and  stony  lanes,  very  safe  in  broad 
daylight.  This  is  the  case  about  Causeway-foot,  and 
among  Naddle-fetls  to  Lajithwaite.  The  vale  you  go  in 
has  little  breadth  the  mountains  are  vast  and  rocky,  the  20 
fields  little  and  poor,  and  the  inhabitants  are  now  making 
hay,  and  see  not  the  sun  by  two  hours  in  a  day  so 
long  as  at  Keswick.  Came  to  the  foot  of  Helvellyn, 
along  which  runs  an  excellent  road,  looking  down  from  a 
little  height  on  Lee's-water,  (called  also  Thirl-meer,  or  25 
Wiborn-water)  and  soon  descending  on  its  margin.  The 
lake  from  its  depth  looks  black,  (though  really  as  clear  as 
glass)  and  from  the  gloom  of  the  vast  crags,  that  scowl 
over  it :  it  is  narrow  and  about  three  miles  long,  resem- 
bling a  river  in  its  course  ;  little  shining  torrents  hurry  30 
down  the  rocks  to  join  it,  with  not  a  bush  to  overshadow 
them,  or  cover  their  march  :  all  is  rock  and  loose  stones 
up  to  the  very  brow,  which  lies  so  near  your  way,  that 
not  above  half  the  height  of  Helvellyn  can  be  seen.  (To 
be  continued,  but  now  we  have  got  franks.) 


\ 


112  PROSE. 

Past  by  the  little  chapel  of  Wiborn,  out  of  which  the 
Sunday  congregation  were  then  issuing.  Past  a  beck 
near  Duiwiail raise  and  entered  Westmoreland  a  second 
time,  now  begin  to  see  Helm-crag  distinguished  from  its 
5  rugged  neighbours  not  so  much  by  its  height,  as  by  the 
strange  broken  outline  of  its  top,  like  some  gigantic 
building  demolished,  and  the  stones  that  composed  it 
flung  across  each  other  in  wild  confusion.  Just  beyond 
it  opens  one  of  the  sweetest   landscapes   that  art   ever 

lo  attempted  to  imitate.  The  bosom  of  the  mountains 
spreading  here  into  a  broad  bason  discovers  in  the  midst 
Gras?7tere-wafer ;  its  margin  is  hollowed  into  small  bays 
with  bold  eminences :  some  of  them  rocks,  some  of  soft 
turf  that  half  conceal  and  vary  the  figure  of  the  little  lake 

15  they  command.  From  the  shore  a  low  promontory 
pushes  itself  far  into  the  water,  and  on  it  stands  a  white 
village  with  the  parish-church  rising  in  the  midst  of  it, 
hanging  enclosures,  corn-fields,  and  meadows  green  as  an 
emerald,  with  their  trees  and  hedges,  and  cattle  fill  up 

20  the  whole  space  from  the  edge  of  the  water.  Just 
opposite  to  you  is  a  large  farm-house  at  the  bottom  of  a 
steep  smooth  lawn  embosomed  in  old  woods,  which  climb 
half  way  up  the  mountain's  side,  and  discover  above 
them  a  broken  line  of  crags,  that  crown  the  scene.     Not 

25  a  single  red  tile,  no  flaming  gentleman's  house,  or  garden 
walls  break  in  upon  the  repose  of  this  little  unsuspected 
paradise,  but  all  is  peace,  rusticity,  and  happy  poverty  in 
its  neatest,  most  becoming  attire. 

The  road  winds  here  over  Grasmcre-hill^  whose  rocks 

30  soon  conceal  the  water  from  your  sight,  yet  it  is  continued 
along  behind  them,  and  contracting  itself  to  a  river  com- 
municates with  Ridale-water,  another  small  lake,  but  of 
inferior  size  and  beauty  ;  it  seems  shallow  too,  for  large 
patches  of  reeds  appear  pretty  far  within   it.     Into  this 


PROSE.  113 

vale  the  road  descends :  on  the  opposite  banks  large 
and  ancient  woods  mount  up  the  hills,  and  just  to  the 
left  of  our  way  stands  Ridak-hall,  the  family  seat  of  Sir 
Mic.  Fleming,  but  now  a  farm-house,  a  large  old  fashioned 
fabric  surrounded  with  wood,  and  not  much  too  good  for  5 
its  present  destination.  Sir  Michael  is  now  on  his 
travels,  and  all  this  timber  far  and  wide  belongs  to  him, 
I  tremble  for  it  when  he  returns.  Near  the  house  rises 
a  huge  crag  called  Ridale-head,  which  is  said  to  command 
a  full  view  of  lVy?iajider-mere,  and  I  doubt  it  not,  for  10 
within  a  mile  that  great  lake  is  visible  even  from  the 
road.  As  to  going  up  the  crag,  one  might  as  well  go  up 
Skiddaw. 

Came  to  Ambleside  eighteen  miles  from  Keswick,  mean- 
ing to  lie  there,  but  on  looking  into  the  best  bed-chamber  15 
dark  and  damp  as  a  cellar,  grew  delicate  gave  up 
Wyiiajidcr-mere  in  despair,  and  resolved  I  would  go  on  to 
Kendai  directly,  fourteen  miles  farther ;  the  road  in 
general  fine  turnpike  but  some  parts  (about  three  miles 
in  all)  not  made,  yet  without  danger.  20 

Unexpectedly  was  well  rewarded  for  my  determination. 
The  afternoon  was  fine,  and  the  road  for  full  five  miles 
runs  along  the  side  of  Wynander-7nere,  with  delicious 
views  across  it,  and  almost  from  one  end  to  the  other:  it 
is  ten  miles  in  length  and  at  most  a  mile  over,  resembling  25 
the  course  of  some  vast  and  magnificent  river,  but  no  fiat 
marshy  grounds,  no  osier  beds,  or  patches  of  scrubby 
plantation  on  its  banks :  at  the  head  two  valleys  open  the 
mountains,  one,  that  by  which  we  came  down,  the  other 
Langsledale  in  which  Wrynose  and  Hard-knot  two  great  30 
mountains  rise  above  the  rest.  From  thence  the  fells 
visibly  sink  and  soften  along  its  sides.  Sometimes  they 
run  into  it,  (but  with  a  gentle  declivity)  in  their  own  dark 
and  natural  complexion,  oftener  they  are  green  and  culti- 


114  PROSE. 

vated  with  farms  interspersed  and  round  eminences  on 
the  border  covered  with  trees :  towards  the  South  it 
seems  to  break  into  larger  bays  with  several  islands  and 
a  wider  extent  of  cultivation :  the  way  rises  continually 
5  till  at  a  place  called  Orresthead  it  turns  to  South  East 
losing  sight  of  the  water.  Passed  by  Iiigs  chapel  and 
Stavely,  but  I  can  say  no  farther  for  the  dusk  of  the 
evening  coming  on  I  entered  Kendal  almost  in  the  dark, 
and  could  distinguish  only  a  shadow  of  the  castle  on  a 

lo  hill,  and  tenter  grounds  spread  far  and  wide  round  the 
town,  which  I  mistook  for  houses.  My  inn  promised 
sadly,  having  two  wooden  galleries  (like  Scotland)  in 
front  of  it.  It  was  indeed  an  old  ill-contrived  house,  but 
kept  by  civil  sensible  people,  so  I  stayed  two  nights  with 

15  them,  and  fared  and  slept  very  comfortably, 

Oct.  9.  Wind  N.  W.  clouds  and  sun  air  as  mild  as 
summer  ;  all  corn  off  the  ground  sky-larks  singing  aloud 
(by  the  way  I  saw  not  one  at  Keswick  perhaps  because 
the  place  abounds  in  birds  of  prey)  went  up  the  castle- 

20  hill,  the  town  consists  chiefly  of  three  nearly  parallel 
streets  almost  a  mile  long,  except  these  all  the  other  houses 
seem  as  if  they  had  been  dancing  a  country-dance  and 
were  out ;  there  they  stand  back  to  back,  corner  to 
corner,  some  up  hill  some  down  without  intent  or  mean- 

25  ing ;  along  by  their  side  runs  a  fine  brisk  stream,  over 
which  are  three  stone  bridges,  the  buildings  (a  few  com- 
fortable houses  excepted)  are  mean,  of  stone  and  covered 
with  a  bad  rough  cast.  Near  the  end  of  the  town  stands 
a  handsome  house  of  Col.  Wilson's  and  adjoining  to  it 

30  the  church,  a  very  large  Gothic  fabric  with  a  square 
tower,  it  has  no  particular  ornaments  but  double  aisles 
and  at  the  east  end  four  chapels  or  choirs,  one  of  the 
Parrs,  another  of  the  Stricklands,  the  third  is  the  proper 
choir  of  the  church,   and  a  fourth  of  the  Bellinghams,  a 


PROSE.  115 

family  now  extinct.  The  remains  of  the  castle  are  seated 
on  a  fine  hill  on  the  side  of  the  river  opposite  to  the 
town,  almost  the  whole  enclosure  of  walls  remains  with 
four  towers,  two  square  and  two  round,  but  their  upper 
part  and  embattlements  are  demolished,  it  is  of  rough  5 
stone  and  cement ;  without  any  ornaments  or  arms  round, 
enclosing  a  court  of  like  form  and  surrounded  by  a  moat, 
nor  ever  could  have  been  larger  than  it  is  for  there  are 
no  traces  of  outworks,  there  is  a  good  view  of  the  town 
and  river  with  a  fertile  open  valley  through  which  it  winds.  10 

After  dinner  went  along  the  MiltJu-op  turnpike  four 
miles  to  see  the  falls  (or  force)  of  the  river  Kent :  came 
to  Sise7'ge  (pronounce  Siscr)  and  turned  down  a  lane  to 
the  left,  SIse?',  the  seat  of  the  Stricklands  an  old  catholic 
family  is  an  ancient  hall-house  with  a  very  large  tower  15 
embattled  :  the  rest  of  the  buildings  added  to  this  are  of 
later  date,  but  all  is  white,  and  seen  to  advantage  on  a 
back  ground  of  old  trees  ;  there  is  a  small  park  also  well 
wooded,  opposite  to  this  turned  to  the  left  and  soon  came 
to  the  river :  it  works  its  way  in  a  narrow  and  deep  rocky  20 
channel  overhung  with  trees.  The  calmness  and  bright- 
ness of  the  evening,  the  roar  of  the  waters,  and  the 
thumping  of  huge  hammers  at  an  iron  forge  not  far 
distant  made  it  a  singular  walk,  but  as  to  the  falls  (for 
there  are  two)  they  are  not  four  feet  high.  I  went  on  25 
down  to  the  forge  and  saw  the  demons  at  work  bv  the 
light  of  their  own  fires  :  the  iron  is  brought  in  pigs  to 
Milth?'op  by  sea  from  Scotland,  and  is  here  beat  into  bars 
and  plates.  Two  miles  farther  at  Levens  is  the  seat  of 
Lord  Suffolk,  where  he  sometimes  passes  the  summer :  it  3° 
was  a  favorite  place  of  his  late  Countess,  but  this  I  did 
not  see. 

Oct.  10.     Went  by  Burton  to  Lancaster.     Wind  N.  W. 
Clouds  and  sun :  twenty-two  miles :    very  good    country 


lib  PROSE. 

well  inclosed  and  wooded,  with  some  common  inter- 
spersed ;  passed  at  the  foot  of  Farlton-Kfiot  a  high  fell ; 
four  miles  north  of  Lancaste?;  on  a  rising  ground  called 
Bolton  (pronounce  Boutoii)  we  had  a  full  view  of  Cai'tmell- 
5  safids,  with  here  and  there  a  passenger  riding  over  them, 
(it  being  low  water)  the  points  of  Fuj'7iess  shooting  far 
into  the  sea,  and  lofty  mountains  partly  covered  with 
clouds  extending  North  of  them.  Lancaster  also  appeared 
very   conspicuous    and    fine,   for   its   most    distinguished 

lo  features,  the  castle  and  the  church  mounted  on  a  green 
eminence,  were  all  that  could  be  seen.  Woe  is  me  ! 
when  I  got  thither,  it  was  the  second  day  of  their  fair  ; 
the  inn  in  the  principal  street  was  a  great  old  gloomy 
house  full  of  people,  but  I  found  tolerable  quarters,  and 

15  even  slept  two  nights  in  peace. 

Ascended  the  castle-hill  in  a  fine  afternoon  ;  it  takes 
up  the  higher  top  of  the  eminence  on  which  it  stands, 
and  is  irregularly  round  encompassed  with  a  deep  moat. 
In  front  towards  the  town  is  a  magnificent  Gothic  gate- 

20  way,  lofty  and  huge,  the  over-hanging  battlements  are 
supported  by  a  triple  range  of  corbels,  the  intervals 
pierced  through  and  showing  the  day  from  above  ;  on  its 
top  rise  light  watch-towers  of  small  height,  it  opens  below 
with  a  grand  pointed  arch  ;  over  this  is  a  wrought  taber- 

25  nacle,  doubtless  once  containing  the  founder's  figure,  on 
one  side  a  shield  of  France  semy  quartered  with  England, 
on  the  other  the  same  with  a  label  ermine  for  John  of 
Gaunt,  Duke  of  Lancaster.  This  opens  to  a  court 
within,   which   I   did  not  much   care  to   enter  being  the 

30  county  gaol  and  full  of  prisoners,  both  criminals  and 
debtors.  From  this  gate-way  the  walls  continue  and  join 
it  to  a  vast  square  tower  of  great  height,  the  lower  part 
at  least  of  remote  antiquity ;  for  it  has  small  round- 
headed  lights   with   plain   short   pillars  on  each  side  of 


PROSE.  117 

them  ;  there  is  a  third  tower  also  square  and  of  less 
dimensions,  this  is  all  the  castle :  near  it  and  but  little 
lower  stands  the  church  a  large  and  plain  Gothic  fabric  : 
the  high  square  tower  at  the  west  end  has  been  rebuilt  of 
late  years,  but  nearly  in  the  same  style.  There  are  no  5 
ornaments  of  arms,  &c.  any  where  to  be  seen,  within  it  is 
lightsome  and  spacious,  but  not  one  monument  of 
antiquity,  or  piece  of  painted  glass  is  left :  from  the 
church-yard  there  is  an  extensive  sea-view  (for  now  the 
tide  had  almost  covered  the  sands,  and  filled  the  river),  10 
and  besides  greatest  part  of  Fiirness  I  could  distinguish 
Peel-castle  on  the  Isle  of  Fowd7'e}\  which  lies  off  its  south- 
ern extremity,  the  town  is  built  on  the  slope,  and  at  the 
foot  of  the  Castle-hill  more  than  twice  the  bigness  of 
Auckland,  with  rriany  neat  buildings  of  white  stone,  but  a  15 
little  disorderly  in  their  position  ad  libitum  like  Kendal. 
Many  also  extend  below  on  the  Keys  by  the  river  side, 
where  a  number  of  ships  were  moored,  some  of  them 
three  mast  vessels,  decked  out  with  their  colours  in 
honour  of  the  fair.  Here  is  a  good  bridge  of  four  arches  20 
over  the  Lune,  which  runs  w^hen  the  tide  is  out  in  two 
streams  divided  by  a  bed  of  gravel,  which  is  not  covered 
but  in  spring  tides,  below  the  town  it  widens  to  near  the 
breadth  of  the  Thames  at  London,  and  meets  the  sea  at 
five  or  six  miles  distance  to  the  S.  W.  25 

Oct.  II.  Wind  S.  W.  ;  clouds  and  sun:  warm  and  a 
fine  dappled  sky :  crossed  the  river  and  walked  over  a 
peninsula  three  miles  to  the  village  of  Pooton,  which 
stands  on  the  beach.  An  old  fisherman  mending  his 
nets  (while  I  enquired  about  the  danger  of  passing  those  3° 
sands)  told  me  in  his  dialect  a  moving  story.  How  a 
brother  of  the  trade,  a  cockier  (as  he  styled  him)  driving 
a  little  cart  with  two  daughters  (women  grown)  in  it,  and 
his  wife  on  horseback  following,  set  out  one  day  to  pass 


Ii8  PROSE. 

the  Seven  Mile  Sands,  as  they  had  frequently  been  used 
to  do :  for  nobody  in  the  village  knew  them  better  than 
the  old  man  did.  When  they  were  about  half  way  over  a 
thick  fog  rose,  and  as  they  advanced,  they  found  the 
5  water  much  deeper  than  they  expected.  The  old  man 
was  puzzled,  he  stopped,  and  said  he  would  go  a  little 
way  to  find  some  mark  he  was  acquainted  with.  They 
staid  a  little  while  for  him  but  in  vain.  They  called 
aloud,  but  no  reply,   at  last   the   young  women  pressed 

lo  their  mother  to  think  where  they  were,  and  go  on.  She 
would  not  leave  the  place,  she  wandered  about  forlorn 
and  amazed.  She  would  not  quit  her  horse,  and  get  into 
the  cart  with  them.  They  determined,  after  much  time 
wasted   to   turn    back,   and    give    themselves   up  to   the 

15  guidance  of  their  horses.  The  old  woman  was  soon 
washed  off  and  perished.  The  poor  girls  clung  close  to 
their  cart,  and  the  horse,  sometimes  wading,  and  some- 
times swimming  brought  them  back  to  land  alive,  but 
senseless  with  terror  and  distress  and  unable  for  many 

20  days  to  give  any  account  of  themselves.  The  bodies  of 
their  parents  were  found  soon  after  (next  ebb)  ;  that  of 
the  father  a  very  few  paces  distant  from  the  spot  where 
he  had  left  them. 

In  the  afternoon  wandered  about  the  town  and  by  the 

25  key  till  it  was  dark.     A  little  rain  fell. 

Oct.  12.  Wind  North-east.  Sky  gloomy,  then  gleams 
of  sunshine.  Set  out  for  Settle  by  a  fine  turnpike  road, 
29  miles. 

Rich  and  beautiful  enclosed   country  diversified,  with 

30  frequent  villages  and  churches  very  uneven  ground,  and 
on  the  left  the  river  Lune  winding  in  a  deep  valley,  its 
hanging  banks  clothed  with  fine  woods,  through  which 
you  catch  long  reaches  of  the  water,  as  the  road  winds 
about   at  a  considerable    height    above   it.     Passed    the 


PROSE.  119 

Park  (Hon.  Mr.  Clifford's,  a  Catholic)  in  the  most 
picturesque  part  of  the  way.  The  grounds  between  him 
and  the  River  are  indeed  charming  :  the  house  is  ordinary, 
and  the  Park  nothing  but  a  rocky  fell  scattered  over  with 
ancient  hawthorns.  Came  to  Hornby,  a  little  town  on  5 
the  River  Wanning,  over  which  a  handsome  bridge  is 
now  in  building.  The  Castle  in  a  lordly  situation 
attracted  me,  so  I  walked  up  the  hill  to  it.  First 
presents  itself  a  large  but  ordinary  white  gentleman's 
house  sashed,  behind  it  rises  the  ancient  keep  built  by  10 
Edward  Stanley,  Lord  Monteagle,  in  Henry  the  VHIth's 
time.  It  is  now  a  shell  only,  though  rafters  are  laid 
within  it  as  for  flooring.  I  went  up  a  winding  stone 
staircase  in  one  corner  to  the  leads,  and  at  the  angle  is  a 
single  hexagon  watch-tower  rising  some  feet  higher  fitted  15 
up  in  the  taste  of  a  modern  Toot.,  with  sash-windows  in 
gilt  frames,  and  a  stucco  cupola,  and  on  the  top  a  vast 
gilt  eagle,  by  Mr.  Charteris,  the  present  possessor.  But 
he  has  not  lived  here  since  the  year  1745,  when  the 
people  of  Lancaster  insulted  him,  threw  stones  into  his  20 
coach  and  almost  made  his  wife  (Lady  Catherine  Gordon) 
miscarry.  Since  that  he  has  built  a  great  ugly  house  of 
red  stone  (thank  God  it  is  not  in  England)  near  Hadding- 
ton, which  I  remember  to  have  passed  by.  He  is  the 
second  son  of  the  Earl  of  Wemyss,  and  brother  to  the  25 
Lord  Elcho ;  grandson  to  Colonel  Charteris,  whose  name 
he  bears.  From  the  leads  of  the  tower  there  is  a  fine 
view  of  the  country  round  and  much  wood  near  the 
Castle.  Ingleborough,  which  I  had  seen  before  distinctly 
at  Lancaster,  to  North-east,  was  now  completely  wrapt  in  30 
clouds,  all  but  its  summit,  which  might  have  been  easily 
mistaken  for  a  long  black  cloud  too,  fraught  with  an 
approaching  storm.  Now  our  road  began  gradually  to 
mount  towards  the  Appennine,  the  trees  growing  less  and 


I20  PROSE. 

thinner  of  leaves  till  we  came  to  Ingleton,  i8  miles :  It  is 
a  pretty  village,  situated  very  high  and  yet  in  a  valley  at 
the  foot  of  that  huge  creature  of  God  Inglebo7'ough.  Two 
torrents  cross  it  with  great  stones  rolled  along  their  bed 
5  instead  of  water :  over  them  are  two  handsome  arches 
flung.  Here  at  a  little  ale-house,  where  Sir  Bellingham 
Graham,  and  Mr.  Parker,  Lord  of  the  Manor,  (one  of 
them  six  feet  and  a  half  high,  and  the  other  as  much  in 
breadth)   came   to   dine.      The   nipping   air   (though   the 

lo  afternoon  was  growing  very  bright)  now  taught  us  we  were 
in  Craven  ;  the  road  was  all  up  and  down  (though  no  where 
very  steep)  to  the  left  were  mountain-tops,  to  the  right  a 
wide  valley ;  (all  enclosed  ground)  and  beyond  it  high 
hills  again.      In  approaching  Settle  the  crags  on  the  left 

15  draw  nearer  to  our  way  ;  till  we  ascended  Brun ton-brow, 
into  a  cheerful  valley,  (though  thin  of  trees)  to  Giggles- 
wick,  a  village  with  a  small  piece  of  water  by  its  side 
covered  over  with  coots.  Near  it  a  church,  which 
belongs   also  to   Settle,   and  half  a  mile  further  having 

20  passed  the  Ribble  over  a  bridge  arrived  at  Settle.  It  is 
a  small  market-town  standing  directly  under  a  rocky  fell. 
There  are  not  a  dozen  good-looking  houses,  the  rest  are 
old  and  low,  with  little  wooden  porticoes  in  front.  My 
Inn  pleased  me  much  (though  small)  for  the  neatness  and 

25  civility  of  the  good  woman  that  kept  it,  so  I  lay  there  two 
nights,  and  went 

Oct.  13,  to  visit  Gordale-scar.  Wind  N.  E.  :  day  gloomy 
and  cold.  It  lay  but  six  miles  from  Settle,  but  that  way 
was   directly  over  a  fell,   and  it  might  rain,   so  I  went 

30  round  in  a  chaise  the  only  way  one  could  get  near  it  in  a 
carriage,  which  made  it  full  thirteen  miles  ;  and  half  of  it 
such  road  !  but  I  got  safe  over  it,  so  there's  an  end  ; 
and  came  to  Mallham  (pronounce  it  Maum)  a  village  in 
the  bosom  of  the  mountains  seated  in  a  wild  and  dreary 


PROSE.  121 

valley :  from  thence  I  was  to  walk  a  mile  over  very  rough 
ground.  A  torrent  rattling  along  on  the  left  hand.  On 
the  cliffs  above  hung  a  few  goats ,  one  of  them  danced 
and  scratched  an  ear  with  its  hind  foot  in  a  place  where 
I  would  not  have  stood  stock-still  for  all  beneath  the  5 
moon :  As  I  advanced  the  crags  seemed  to  close  in, 
but  discovered  a  narrow  entrance  turning  to  the  left 
between  them.  I  followed  my  guide  a  few  paces,  and  lo, 
the  hills  opened  again  into  no  large  space,  and  then  all 
further  way  is  barred  by  a  stream,  that  at  the  height  of  10 
above  50  feet  gushes  from  a  hole  in  the  rock,  and  spread- 
ing in  large  sheets  over  its  broken  front,  dashes  from 
steep  to  steep,  and  then  rattles  away  in  a  torrent  down 
the  valley.  The  rock  on  the  left  rises  perpendicular  with 
stubbed  yew-trees  and  shrubs,  staring  from  its  side  to  the  15 
height  of  at  least  300  feet ;  but  those  are  not  the  things  : 
it  is  that  to  the  right  under  which  you  stand  to  see  the 
fall,  that  forms  the  principal  horror  of  the  place.  From 
its  very  base  it  begins  to  slope  forwards  over  you  in  one 
block  and  solid  mass  without  any  crevice  in  its  surface  20 
and  overshadows  half  the  area  below  with  its  dreadful 
canopy.  When  I  stood  at  (I  believe)  full  four  yards 
distance  from  its  foot,  the  drops  which  perpetually  distil 
from  its  brow,  fell  on  my  head,  and  in  one  part  of  the  top 
more  exposed  to  the  weather  there  are  loose  stones  that  25 
hang  in  the  air ;  and  threaten  visibly  some  idle  spectator 
with  instant  destruction :  It  is  safer  to  shelter  yourself 
close  to  its  bottom,  and  trust  the  mercy  of  that  enormous 
mass,  which  nothing  but  an  earthquake  can  stir:  The 
gloomy  uncomfortable  day  well  suited  the  savage  aspect  3^ 
of  the  place  and  made  it  still  more  formidable. 

I  stayed  there  (not  without  shuddering)  a  quarter  of  an 
hour,  and  thought  my  trouble  richly  paid,  for  the  impres- 
sion will  last  for  life :  At  the  ale-house  where  I  dined  in 


122  PROSE. 

Mauvi^  Vivares,  the  landscape  painter,  had  lodged  for  a 
week  or  more  ;  Smith  and  Bellers  had  also  been  there ; 
and  two  prints  of  Gordale  have  been  engraved  by  them  : 
I  returned  to  my  comfortable  inn :  Night  fine :  but  windy 

5  and  frosty. 

Oct.  14.  Went  to  Skipton  16  miles.  Wind  North  East; 
gloomy.  At  one  o'clock  a  little  sleet  falls.  From  several 
parts  of  the  road,  and  in  many  places  about  Settle,  I  saw 
at   once   the   three   famous   hills  of  this  country,   Ingle- 

10  borough,  Penigent,  and  Pendle  ;  the  first  is  esteemed  the 
highest ;  their  features  are  hard  to  describe,  but  I  could 
trace  their  outline  with  a  pencil.  [In  the  manuscript  is 
inserted  a  rough  outline  of  the  shape  of  these  three 
mountains,  in  this  place.]     Craven  after  all  is  an  unpleas- 

15  ing  country,  when  seen  from  a  height.  Its  valleys  are 
chiefly  wide  and  either  marshy  or  enclosed  pasture  with 
a  few  trees :  Numbers  of  black  cattle  are  fatted  here, 
both  of  the  Scotch  breed  and  a  larger  sort  of  oxen  with 
great  horns.     There  is  little  cultivated  ground  except  a 

20  few  oats. 

Oct.  15.  Wind  North  East.  Gloomy.  At  noon  a 
few  grains  of  sleet  fell,  Then  bright  and  clear.  Went 
through  Long  Preston  and  Gargrave  to  Skipton,  16  miles  : 
It  is  a  pretty  large  market  town  in  a  valley  with  one  very 

25  broad  street  gently  sloping  downwards  from  the  castle 
which  stands  at  the  head  of  it  ;  this  is  one  of  our  good 
Countess's  buildings,  but  on  old  foundations,  it  is  not 
very  large  ;  but  of  a  handsome  antique  appearance  with 
round  towers,   a  grand  gateway,  bridge,   and  moat,   and 

30  many  old  trees  about  it.  In  good  repair,  and  kept  up  as 
a  habitation  of  the  Earl  of  Thanet ;  though  he  rarely 
comes  thither.  What  with  the  sleet  and  a  foolish  dispute 
about  chaises  that  delayed  me,  I  did  not  see  the  inside 
of  it:  But  went  on  15  miles  to  Ottley.     First  up  Shode- 


FROSE.  123 

bank,  the  steepest  hill  I  ever  saw  a  road  carried  over  in 
England.  For  it  mounts  up  in  a  straight  line  (without 
any  other  repose  for  the  horses  than  by  placing  stones 
every  now  and  then  behind  the  wheels)  for  a  full  mile. 
Then  the  road  goes  on  a  level  along  the  brow  of  this  high  5 
hill  over  Rumbold  Moor,  till  it  gently  descends  into  Wharf- 
dale.  So  they  call  the  Vale  of  the  Wharf :  and  a  beauti- 
ful vale  it  is.  Well  wooded,  well  cultivated,  well 
inhabited,  but  with  high  crags  at  distance,  that  border 
the  green  country  on  either  hand,  through  the  midst  of  10 
it,  deep,  clear,  full  to  the  brink  and  of  no  inconsiderable 
breadth  runs  in  long  windings  the  river  ;  how  it  comes  to 
pass  that  it  should  be  so  fine  and  copious  a  stream  here, 
and  at  Tadcaster  (  so  much  lower)  should  have  nothing 
but  a  wide  stony  channel  without  water,  I  cannot  tell  15 
you ;  I  passed  through  Long  Addi?ig/ia7?i,  Ilkeley  (pro- 
nounce Eccla)  distinguished  by  a  lofty  brow  of  loose 
rocks  to  the  right ;  Burley,  a  neat  and  pretty  village 
among  trees ;  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  river  lay 
Middleton  Lodge,  belonging  to  a  Catholic  gentleman  of  20 
that  name.  Westo7t,  a  venerable  stone  fabric  with  large 
offices,  of  Mr.  Vavasor.  The  meadows  in  front  gently 
descending  to  the  water,  and  behind  a  great  and  shady 
wood.  Farnley  (Mr,  Fawkes)  a  place  like  the  last ;  but 
larger  and  rising  higher  on  the  side  of  the  hill.  Ottley  is  25 
a  large  airy  town,  with  clean  but  low  rustic  buildings,  and 
a  bridge  over  the  Wharf.  I  went  into  its  spacious  Gothic 
church,  which  has  been  new  roofed  with  a  flat  stucco 
ceiling.  In  a  corner  of  it  is  the  monument  of  Thomas 
Lord  Fairfax  and  Helen  Aske,  his  Lady,  descended  from  3° 
the  Cliffords  and  Latimers,  as  her  epitaph  says.  The 
figures  not  ill  cut ;  particularly  his  in  armour,  but  bare- 
headed ;  lie  on  the  tomb.  I  take  them  for  the  grand 
parents  of  the  famous  Sir  Thomas  Fairfax. 


124  PROSE. 

I  have  utterly  forgot,  where  my  journal  left  off,  but 
(I  think)  it  was  after  the  account  of  Gordale.,  near  Settle. 
If  so,  there  was  little  more  worth  your  notice :  the 
principal  things  were  Whaj-fdale  in  the  way  from  Skipton 
5  to  Ottley,  and  Kirkstall  Abbey,  three  miles  from  Leeds. 
The  first  is  the  valley  formed  by  the  River  Wharf,  well 
cultivated,  well  inhabited,  well  wooded,  but  with  high 
rocky  crags  at  distance,  that  border  the  green  country  on 
either  hand :  Through  the  midst  of  it,  runs  the  river  in 

10  long  windings  deep,  clear,  and  full  to  the  brink,  and  of 
no  inconsiderable  breadth.  How  it  comes  to  be  so  fine 
and  copious  a  stream  here,  and  at  Tadcaster  (so  much 
lower)  should  have  nothing  but  a  wide  stony  channel, 
with  little  or  no  water,  I  cannot  tell  you.     Kirkstall  is  a 

15  noble  ruin  in  the  Semi-Saxon  style  of  building,  as  old  as 
K.  Stephen,  toward  the  end  of  his  reign,  1152.  The 
whole  church  is  still  standing  (the  roof  excepted)  seated 
in  a  delicious  quiet  valley  on  the  banks  of  the  River  Are., 
and  preserved  with  religious  reverence  by  the  Duke  of 

20  Montagu.  Adjoining  to  the  church  between  that  and  the 
river  are  variety  of  chapels,  and  remnants  of  the  abbey, 
shattered  by  the  encroachments  of  the  ivy,  and  sur- 
mounted by  many  a  sturdy  tree,  whose  twisted  roots 
break  through  the  fret  of  the  vaulting,  and  hang  stream- 

25  ing  from  the  roofs.  The  gloom  of  these  ancient  cells, 
the  shade  and  verdure  of  the  landscape,  the  glittering 
and  murmur  of  the  stream,  the  lofty  towers  and  long 
perspectives  of  the  church,  in  the  midst  of  a  clear  bright 
day,   detained  me   for  many  hours   and  were  the  truest 

30  subjects  for  my  glass  I  have  yet  met  with  any  where. 
As  I  lay  at  that  smoky  ugly  busy  town  of  Leeds,  I  dropt 
all  farther  thoughts  of  my  journal,  and  after  passing  two 
days  at  Mason's  (though  he  was  absent),  pursued  my  way 
by     Nottingham,     Leicester,      Harborough,     Kettering, 


PROSE.  125 

Thrapston,  and  Huntingdon,  to  Cambridge,  where  I 
arrived,  22  October;  having  met  with  no  rain  to 
signify,  till  this  last  day  of  my  journey.  There's  luck 
for  you  ! 


NOTES  ON   THE  POEMS. 


-•o*- 


I. 

ODE   ON    THE    SPRING. 

Gray  wrote  this  Ode  at  Stoke  in  June,  1742.  He  sent  it  to  his 
school  friend,  Richard  West,  not  knowing  that  West's  death  had 
already  occurred  on  the  first  of  June.  The  Ode  was  first  published 
in  174S,  in  Dodsley's  Collection  of  Poems  by  Several  Haiids,  with 
no  signature  ;  it  next  appeared  in  the  folio  of  1753,  Designs  by  Mr. 
R.  Bentley,  for  Six  Poems  by  Mr.  T.  Gray.  Gray  added  the  foot- 
notes in  the  edition  of  his  Poems  in  1768.  Mason  said  that  Gray 
originally  gave  the  title  of  N'oontide  to  this  Ode;  and  Mr.  Gosse, 
Gray's  IVorks,  I,  4,  notes  that  in  a  copy  of  the  poem,  in  Gray's 
handwriting,  preserved  at  Pembroke  College,  the  title  is  :  Noon-tide. 
An  Ode.  Mason  said  that  Gray  probably  meant  to  write  two  com- 
panion pieces,  Mortiitig  and  Evening.  He  suggested  that  the  Ode 
on  the  Pleasure  Arisijig  from  Vicissitjtde,  beginning  "Now  the 
golden  Morn  aloft "  may  have  been  intended  for  the  Morning  ode, 
and  the  Elegy  for  the  Evening.  These  conjectures  are  ingenious, 
whether  true  or  not. 

I.  Hours.  The  Horae,  goddesses  of  the  changes  of  the  seasons. 
Cf.  Cofutis,  986:  "The  Graces  and  the  rosy-bosomed  Hours." 
Mitford  notes  that  the  Hours  are  joined  with  Aphrodite  in  the 
second  Homeric  Hymn  to  Aphrodite  (5)  and  that  to  Apollo  (194-5) 
and  are  made  part  of  her  train  in  Hesiod  ( Works  and  Days,  75). 

3.    Disclose.      Open,  expand.     Cf. 

"  The  canker  galls  the  infants  of  the  spring, 
Too  oft  before  their  buttons  \i.e.  buds]  be  disclosed." 

Hamlet,  i,  2,  39-40. 

5.  The  Attic  Warbler.  The  Nightingale.  This  bird  is  very 
common  in  Attica.  Philomela,  daughter  of  Pandion,  king  of 
Athens,  was  supposed  to  have  been  changed  into  a  nightingale.  — 
Wakefield  compares  Milton,  Par.  Reg.,  iv,  245: 


128  NOTES   ON  THE  POEMS. 

"  Where  the  Attic  bird 
Trills  her  thick-warbled  notes  the  summer  long  " ; 

and  Mitford  adds  Pope,  Essay  on  Man,  ill,  33  : 

"  Is  it  for  thee  the  linnet  pours  his  throat  ? " 

II.  Where'er  the  oak's,  etc.  The  quiet  scenery  here  described 
exhibits,  perhaps,  a  touch  of  Romantic  feeling ;  but  the  conventional 
moralizing  at  the  end  of  the  stanza  is  thoroughly  Augustan. 

14.  The  passage  from  Shakspere  that  Gray  gives  in  his  note  on 
this  line  is  from  Mid.  Night's  Dream,  ii,  i,  249-251  : 

"  I  know  a  bank  where  the  wild  thyme  blows, 
Where  oxlips  and  the  nodding  violet  grows. 
Quite  over-canopied  with  luscious  woodbine." 

21.  Care.  Gray's  fondness  for  personified  abstractions  is  espe- 
cially noticeable  in  his  early  odes.  This  custom  was  very  fashionable 
among  his  contemporaries.  They  were  all  much  affected  in  this 
respect  by  Milton's  early  poems.     See  Introduction,  p.  xxiv. 

27.    The  note  by  Gray  is  from  the  Georgics,  iv,  59. 

30.  Par.  Lost,  vii,  405,  406. 

31.  To  Contemplation's,  etc.  Cf.  Gray's  Letter  to  Walpole 
(Gray's  Works,  ed.  Gosse,  II,  222):  "I  send  you  a  bit  of  a  thing  for 
two  reasons  ;  first,  because  it  is  one  of  your  favourites,  Mr.  M.  Green; 
and  next,  because  I  would  do'  justice.  The  thought  on  which  my 
second  Ode  \Spri7ig'\  turns  is  manifestly  stole  from  hence ;  not  that 
I  knew  it  at  the  time,  but  having  seen  this  many  years  before,  to  be 
sure  it  imprinted  itself  on  my  memory,  and,  forgetting  the  Author, 
I  took  it  for  my  own.  The  subject  was  the  Queen's  Hermitage." 
He  then  quotes  a  long  passage,  of  which  the  verses  that  follow  are 
the  most  significant : 

"  The  thinking  sculpture  helps  to  raise 
Deep  thoughts,  the  genii  of  the  place : 
To  the  mind's  ear,  and  inward  sight, 
There  silence  speaks,  and  shade  gives  light: 
While  insects  from  the  threshold  preach, 
And  minds  dispos'd  to  musing  teach ; 
Proud  of  strong  limbs  and  painted  hues, 
They  perish  by  the  shghtest  bruise; 
Or  maladies  begun  within 
Destroy  more  slow  life's  frail  machine; 
From  maggot-youth,  thro'  change  of  state, 
They  feel  like  us  the  turns  of  fate : 


NOTES   ON    THE   POEMS.  129 

Some  born  to  creep  have  liv'd  to  fly 

And  chang'd  earth's  cells  for  dwellings  high : 

And  some  that  did  their  six  wings  keep, 

Before  they  died,  been  forced  to  creep. 

They  politics,  like  ours,  profess ; 

The  greater  prey  upon  the  less. 

Some  strain  on  foot  huge  loads  to  bring. 

Some  toil  incessant  on  the  wing : 

Nor  from  their  vigorous  schemes  desist 

Till  death ;   and  then  they  are  never  mist. 

Some  frolick,  toil,  marry,  increase. 

Are  sick  and  well,  have  war  and  peace; 

And  broke  with  age  in  half  a  day, 

Yield  to  successors,  and  away.'' 

44.  A  solitary  fly.  Mason,  writing  to  Gray,  8  January  I76i,said, 
[I  am  living]  "in  that  state  of  life  which  my  old  friend  Jeremy 
Taylor  so  well  describes  in  his  sermon  aptly  entitled  the  Marriage 
Ring.  '  Celibate  life,'  says  he,  'like  the  flie  in  the  heart  of  an  apple, 
dwells  in  a  perpetual  sweetness,  but  sits  alone,  and  is  confined,  and 
dies  in  singularity.  But  marriage,  like  the  useful  bee,  builds  a  house, 
gathers  sweetness  from  every  flower,  labours,  and  unites  into  societys 
and  republics,'  &c.  If  I  survive  you,  and  come  to  publish  your 
works,  I  shall  quote  this  passage,  from  whence  you  so  evidently 
(without  ever  seeing  it)  took  that  thought,  '  Poor  moralist,  and  what 
art  thou,'  &c.  But  the  plagiarism  had  been  too  glaring  had  you 
taken  the  heart  of  the  apple,  in  which,  however,  the  great  beauty 
of  the  thought  consists.  After  all,  why  will  you  not  read  Jeremy 
Taylor  ?  Take  my  word  and  more  for  it,  he  is  the  Shakespeare  of 
divines."  It  is  interesting  to  learn  from  Mason's  letter  that  at  this 
time  Gray  had  not  read  Taylor  ;  his  remarks  in  reply  to  Mason  may 
be  found  on  page  90  of  this  volume. 

48.  Thy  youth  is  flown.  Gray  had  reached  the  age  of  twenty- 
five. 


II. 

ODE    ON  A   DISTANT    PROSPECT   OF   ETON  COLLEGE. 

Gray  wrote  this  ode  in  August,  1742,  at  Stoke,  but  it  was  not 
printed  till  1747.  It  was  the  first  of  his  English  pieces  to  appear 
in  print,  and  was  published  anonymously  at  sixpence.  In  1748  it 
appeared,  j)nce  more  anonymously,  in  Dodsley's  Collectiojt  of  Poems ; 


130  NOTES   ON   THE   POEMS. 

and  in  1753  it  came  third  in  the  ornate  Six  Poems  edition.  The 
motto  is  from  Menander,  ap.  Stobaeum,  Florileg.  98,  7.  Fragm. 
Comic.  Graec.  ed.  A.  Meineke  IV,  291,  fragm.  263;  also  Comic. 
Attic,  fragtn.  ed.  Th.  Kock  III,  221,  fragm.  811.  A  similar  thought 
in  Philemon,  fragm.  (Meineke  Frag.  Com.  Or.  100). 

I.  The  view  here  described  is  full  of  the  quiet  beauty  of  the 
English  landscape. 

I.  Antique.  By  this  word  Gray  means  simply  "ancient";  we 
often  use  it  with  the  connotation  "  old-fashioned." 

4.  Her  Henry's  holy  shade.  Holinshed's  words  {Chronicles,  ed. 
180S,  III,  324-5)  give  the  pertinent  facts:  "Of  his  owne  natural! 
inclination  he  abhorred  all  the  vices  as  well  of  the  bodie  as  of  the 
soule.  His  patience  was  such  that  of  all  the  iniuries  to  him  doone 
(which  were  innumerable)  he  never  asked  vengeance,  thinking  that 
for  such  adversitie  as  chanced  to  him,  his  sinnes  should  be  for- 
gotten and  forgiven.  .  .  .  For  these  before  remembered,  and  other 
the  like  properties  of  reputed  holinesse,  which  was  said  to  rest  in 
him,  it  pleased  God  to  worke  miracles  for  him  in  his  life  time  as 
men  have  listed  to  report.  By  reason  whereof,  King  Henrie  the 
Seaventh  sued  to  Pope  lulio  the  Second  to  have  him  canonized  a 
saint.  But  for  that  the  c  nonizing  of  a  king  seemed  to  be  more 
costlie  than  for  a  bishop,  the  said  king  left  off  his  sute  in  that 
behalf."  Wakefield  calls  attention  to  some  of  Gray's  other  references 
to  Henry  VI.  :  "And  spare  the  meek  Usurper's  holy  head,"  Bard, 
v.  90;  "the  murther'd  saint,"   Ode  for  Music,  v.  46. 

5.  And  ye,  etc.  The  towers  of  the  castle  of  Windsor,  the  present 
residence  of  the  Queen. 

9,  Hoary  Thames.  Rivers  are  often  spoken  of  as  old;  cf.  "Old 
Father  Tiber."  Cf.  also  Pope,  "  Old  father  Thames  advanced  his 
reverend  head,"  Windsor  Forest,  330.  Cf.  also  Spenser's  famous 
description  of  "full-aged"  Thame  {F.  Q.  iv,  11,  25-26),  and  Milton's 
of  Camus  "reverend  sire,"  Lycidas,  103  ff. 

12.  Fields  belov'd  in  vain.  They  recall  to  him  the  happy  days 
he  had  spent  with  his  school  friend  Richard  West,  who  had  just 
died  (seep.  127).  These  fields  cannot  now  give  him  any  pleasure, 
because  they  remind  him  of  his  loss. 

16.  Momentary  bliss.  Forgetting  his  sorrow  for  a  moment  in 
the  joy  of  happy  recollections. 

19.  Gray's  note  is  from  Dryden's  verses  Of  the  Pythagorean 
Philosophy  (v.  no).  From  the  Fifteenth  Book  of  Ovid^s  Meta- 
m.orphoses.  « 


NOTES   ON   THE   POEMS.  131 

25-30.  Who  foremost,  etc.  Referring  to  school  sports  :  swim- 
ming, bird-snaring,  hoop-rolling,  and  trap-ball.  Bentley's  Print  is  my 
authority  for  swimming  instead  of  rowing,  and  for  trap-ball  instead 
of  cricket. 

32.    Murm'ring  labours.     School-boys  mouthing  over  their  books. 

39.    They  hear  a  voice.     The  pursuing  master. 

42.    Less  pleasing  when  possest.     Mildly  pessimistic. 

48.  The  easy  night.  Gray's  ill-health  made  his  nights  anything 
but  "  easy  "  in  later  life. 

51.  Alas,  regardless  of  their  doom.  Rather  heavy  moralizing 
for  a  poet  of  twenty-five. 

55.  Around  'em.  This  abbreviation  sounds  vulgar  to  the  taste 
of  to-day  ;  but  it  caused  no  shock  then. 

60.  Ah,  tell  them,  they  are  men  !  A  stronger  touch  of  pessimism. 
Cf.  the  motto  of  the  poem  :  "  Man,  a  sufficient  occasion  for  calamity." 

61-80.  Observe  the  plentiful  abstractions  (cf.  Introduction,  p.  xxiv). 

79.    Palamon  a}id  Arcite,  ii,  1 192. 

81.  Lo !  in  the  vale  of  years,  etc.  After  the  mental  sufferings 
caused  by  sin  and  failures,  come  the  bodily  ills  of  old  age. 

83.  Cf.  Progress  of  Poesy,  42  ff.  Family  is  familia  in  the  literal 
Latin  sense. 

84.  More  hideous,  etc.     Diseases  worse  than  death. 

92.  Alike.  "Alike"  goes  with  "condemned,"  not  Avith  "to 
groan." 

95.  Yet  ah!  why  should  they  know  their  fate?  Wakefield 
gives  the  following  illustrative  passages.  —  Milton's  Comus,  359-363: 

"  Peace,  brother :   be  not  over-exquisite 
To  cast  the  fashion  of  uncertain  evils ; 
For,  grant  they  be  so,  while  they  rest  unknown, 
What  need  a  man  forestall  his  date  of  grief, 
And  run  to  meet  what  he  would  most  avoid .? " 

and  from  Terence,  Hecyra,  iii,  1,6: 

"  Nam  nos  omnes,  quibus  alicunde  aliquis  objectus  labos, 
Omne  quod  interea  tempus,  prius  quam  id  rescitumst,  lucrost." 

The  sentiment  is  common  enough,  however,  and  had  found  perhaps 
its  most  familiar  expression  only  a  few  years  before  Gray's  lines  were 
written,  in  Pope's  Essay  on  Man,  i,  77  ff.: 

"  Heaven  from  all  creatures  hides  the  book  of  Fate,"  etc. 


132  NOTES  ON  THE  POEMS. 


III. 

HYMN   TO    ADVERSITY. 

The  summer  of  1742  was  a  prolific  season  for  Gray.  The  two 
preceding  Odes,  the  following  Sonnet,  and  the  present  Hymn  were 
all  written  then.  This  poem  he  wrote  at  Stoke  in  August,  as  we 
learn  from  his  MS.  note.  It  appeared  in  print  for  the  first  time  as 
No.  5  in  the  Six  Poems  of  1753;  and  in  1755  it  was  printed  in 
Vol.  IV  of  Dodsley's  Collection  of  Poems.  Gray  was  never  in  a 
hurry  to  publish. 

I.  Daughter  of  Jove.  Homer,  Iliad,  xix,  91,  makes  Ate  ("Attj) 
the  daughter  of  Zeus,  but  Mitford  goes  too  far  in  suggesting  that  Ate 
(Infatuation)  "may  be  called  the  goddess  of  Adversity."  The 
alternative  suggestion  is  doubtless  right:  God  sends  adversity  to 
men  with  some  wise  purpose ;  Daughter  of  Jove  alludes  to  the 
Greek  motto  of  the  poem,  Agamem.  167-17 1,  which  means  "Zeus 
it  is  who  has  led  mortals  to  wisdom  by  establishing  it  as  a  fixed  law 
that  knowledge  comes  by  suffering."  The  readings  of  this  passage 
from  ^schylus  vary  in  details  in  different  editions ;  misprints  are 
Tw  for  Tcp  :  /jLadav  for  ixddav. 

1-8.  Mitford  points  out  three  passages  in  this  stanza  apparently 
suggested  by  Paradise  Lost: 

"  The  vassals  of  his  anger,  when  the  scourge 
Inexorably,  and  the  torturing  hourT  —  ii,  90,  91. 

"  In  adamantine  chains  and  penal  fire."  —  i,  48. 

"  Strange  horror  seize  thee,  and  pangs  unfelt  beforep  —  ii,  703. 

But  adamantitie  chaifts  is  very  common  among  poets. 

7.  Purple  Tyrants.  Wakefield  quotes  Horace,  Od.  i,  35,  12: 
"  Purpurei  metuunt  tyranni." 

10-12.  The  common  thought  that  virtue  springs  from  adversity, 
as  vice  from  luxury  —  as  false  as  common. 

18.    Folly's  idle  brood.     Cf.  //  Penseroso,  1-2. 

22.  The  summer  friend.  Referring  to  summer's  days  of  ease 
Cf.  Hamlet,  iii,  2,  217  ff.     Mitford  quotes  George  Herbert: 

"...  fall  and  flow 
Like  leaves  about  me,  or  like  summer  friends. 
Flies  of  estates  and  sunshine." 

The  Temple,  short  poem  The  Answer. 


NOTES  ON  THE  POEMS.  133 

a6  ff.    Wakefield  quotes  Milton,  //  Penseroso,  38-44 : 

"  With  even  step,  and  musing  gait, 
And  looks  commercing  with  the  skies, 
Thy  rapt  soul  sitting  in  thine  eyes: 
There,  held  in  holy  passion  still. 
Forget  thyself  to  marble,  till 
With  a  sad  leaden  downward  cast 
Thou  fix  them  on  the  earth  as  fast." 

35.  Gorgon  terrors.     The  snaky  head  of  Medusa. 

36.  Vengeful  band.     The  Furies. 

40.  Ghastly  Poverty.  Poverty  always  seemed  terrible  to  Gray. 
Cf.  Progress  of  Poesy ,  43:  "  Labour,  and  Penury,  the  racks  of  Pain," 
and  Ode  on  a  Distant  Prospect  of  Eton  College^  88,  where  Poverty 
"  fills  the  band  "  of  disease,  and  "  numbs  the  soul  with  icy  hand." 

41-44.  To  some  people  Adversity  is  not  a  curse  ;  it  brings  only 
a  "sweet  melancholy,"  stimulating  reflection. 

47.  Exact  my  own  defects,  etc.  Gray  was  proud,  fastidious,  and 
over-sensitive,  and  he  knew  it. 


IV. 

SONNET   ON   THE   DEATH    OF    RICHARD   WEST. 

Richard  West  died  on  the  first  of  June,  1742,  and  Gray  wrote 
this  Sonnet  at  Stoke  in  August  of  the  same  year ;  but  it  was  not 
published  until  1775,  when  it  appeared  in  Mason's  Life  of  Gray. 

This  poem  has  a  historical  significance,  as  it  was  the  first  English 
sonnet  written  in  the  eighteenth  century  that  has  survived.  With 
the  exception  of  Walsh's  Sonnet  on  Death,  this  sonnet  of  Gray's  has 
the  distinction  of  being  the  first  poem  of  the  kind  since  the  sonnets 
of  Milton  —  another  interesting  link  between  Gray  and  the  great 
Puritan  poet.  For  an  account  of  the  disappearance  and  revival  of 
the  Sonnet-form,  see  Wm.  Lyon  Phelps,  Beginiiings  of  the  English 
Rottiantic  Movement  (1893),  PP-  44-46"  Observe  the  curious  metrical 
form,  ab,  ab,  ab,  ab,  cd,  cd,  cd. 

This  sonnet  is  full  of  Miltonic  phrases  :  Bradshaw  notes  "  smiling 
mom,"  Par.  Lost,  v,  168;  xi,  173-175;  "amorous  descant,"  Par. 
Lost,  iv,  603 ;  and  Milton  uses  "  attire  "  for  the  covering  of  the  fields. 
Par.  Lost,  vii,  501. 


134 


NOTES   ON   THE   POEMS. 


2.  Phoebus.  Wordsworth  was  no  doubt  thinking  of  this  and 
other  classicisms  in  Gray  when  he  made  his  unjust  attack  on  this 
Sonnet.     See  Wordsworth's  Prose  Works,  ed.  Grosart,  II,  85. 

4.  Chearful  fields,  etc.  Gray  was  usually  a  most  sympathetic 
observer  of  the  changes  of  nature. 

5.  Other  notes.  West  had  been  in  the  habit  of  sending  his 
verses  to  Gray,  as  fast  as  he  composed  them.  Gray  usually  care- 
fully and  minutely  criticised  them,  as  he  did  the  productions  of 
Mason  and  Beattie.  See  D.  C.  Tovey,  Gray  and  His  Frietids  (1890), 
Section  II,  and  the  letters  from  West  to  Gray  in  Gray's  Works, 
Vol.  II. 

7.  My  lonely  anguish.  Gray  never  shared  his  emotions  with 
any  one.  In  spite  of  the  classicisms,  the  tone  of  sincerity  in  this 
Sonnet  is  unmistakable.  Gray  never  loved  man  or  woman  as  he 
loved  Richard  West.  Observe  his  apostrophe  to  West,  under  the 
name  Favonius,  at  the  end  of  Gray's  Latin  fragment,  De  Principiis 
Cogitandi. 


V. 

ODE  ON  THE  DEATH  OF  A  FAVOURITE  CAT. 

This  Ode  was  written  early  in  the  year  1747,  and  first  saw  the 
light  in  a  letter  to  Horace  Walpole,  dated  i  March,  1747,  in  which 
we  learn  that  the  poem  was  playfully  written  by  Gray  to  commemo- 
rate the  untimely  drowning  of  one  of  his  friend's  pet  cats.  (See 
p.  69.)  Walpole  seems  to  have  admired  the  poem  fully  as  much  as 
he  had  loved  its  object ;  and  after  Gray's  death  the  china  bowl  in 
which  the  cat  was  drowned  was  placed  on  a  pedestal  at  Strawberry 
Hill,  with  a  quotation  from  the  present  poem. 

This  Ode  was  first  published  in  Vol.  II  of  Dodsley's  Collection  of 
Poems,  1748,  and  that  Gray  himself  liked  it  may  be  seen  from  the 
fact  that  it  appeared  also  in  the  Six  Poems  of  1753,  and  in  Gray's 
own  carefully  edited  volume  of  1768.  The  Ode  is  a  trifle,  but  is 
polished  with  all  of  Gray's  fastidious  workmanship.  Gray  sent  it  to 
his  friend  Thomas  Wharton,  with  some  playful  comments,  March, 
1747  {Works,  II,  164). 

3.  That  blow.     The  flowers  are  painted  on  the  vase  in  full  bloom. 

4.  Tabby.  Skeat  gives  the  meaning  of  this  word  as  "a  kind  of 
waved  silk,"  and  adds,  "  A  tabby  cat  is  one  marked  like  the  silk." 


NOTES   ON   THE  POEMS.  13  r 

The  word  comes  from  the  Arabic.  A  tabby  cat  would,  therefore, 
strictly  mean  a  cat  whose  fur  is  streaked  black  and  gray  ;  but  in 
line  10  Gray  seems  to  imply  that  the  cat  in  question  was  a  tortoise- 
shell.  Tortoise-shell  cats  are  often  called  tabby  ;  indeed,  the  adjec- 
tive is  not  infrequently  applied  to  cats  in  general.  Gray- uses  the 
word  again  in  his  l^ter  to  Walpole.  (See  p.  70.)  In  Bentley's  Print 
the  cat  is  gray,  with  pronounced  black  streaks  ;  not  a  tortoise-shell. 

6.    The  lake.     The  poem  is  consistently  mock-heroic  throughout. 

12,  She  saw.  She  gazes  with  pride  on  the  reflection  of  her  own 
beauty,  like  Narcissus. 

16.    Tyrian  hue.     Alluding  to  Tyrian  purple. 

26.  Again  she  stretch'd.  A  good  picture  of  the  comical  length- 
ening out  of  a  cat's  form  when  her  eyes  are  on  the  game. 

31.    Eight  times.     A  cat  has  nine  lives,  as  everybody  knows. 

34.  No  Dolphin  came.  Alluding  to  the  well-known  story  of  the 
dolphin's  carrying  Arion  on  his  back  to  land.  It  is  possible  that 
the  allusion  in  N'ereid  is  to  the  story  of  Sabrina  in  Gonitis. 

42,  Nor  all,  that  glisters,  gold.  A  very  old  proverb,  of  which 
Mitford  quotes  many  examples.  His  list  could  be  indefinitely 
extended. 


VI. 

THE  ALLIANCE  OF  EDUCATION  AND   GOVERNMENT. 

Gray  sent  a  portion  of  this  poem  to  his  friend,  Dr.  Wharton,  in  a 
letter  from  Stoke,  August,  1748,  in  which  he  speaks  of  it  as  "  a  sort 
of  Essay."  The  poem,  with  its  serious  ethical  purpose,  and  with  its 
Heroic  Couplet  form,  is  distinctly  Augustan,  and  is  included  in  this 
edition  less  on  account  of  its  intrinsic  interest  than  because  of  its 
significance  in  Gray's  career.  The  fact  that  he  never  finished  it 
gives  evidence  that  he  outgrew  it  ;  and,  indeed,  it  is  wellnigh  impos- 
sible to  imagine  the  Gray  of  later  years  writing  a  piece  like  this. 
His  friends,  who  were  greatly  pleased  with  such  a  didactic  poem, 
besought  him  again  and  again  to  complete  it ;  his  answer  was, 
he  coicld  not. 

The  Alliance  was  first  published  by  Mason,  in  1775,  in  his  Memoirs 
of  Gray.  Few  notes  are  necessary,  as  Mason's  commentary  is 
enough  to  satisfy  all  ordinary  curiosity.  For  the  present  text,  I 
have  collated  Mason,  Gosse,  and  Bradshaw. 


136  NOTES   ON  THE  POEMS. 

The  Motto  from  Theocritus,  Id.  i,  62,  63,  may  be  thus  translated: 
"  Come  on,  my  friend  ;  for  your  song  you  shall  not  hoard  up  for 
Hades,  which  brings  forgetfulness." 

The  last  couplet  quoted  by  Mason  is  really  worth  all  the  rest  of 
the  poem;  Gray  had  a  way  of  omitting  extremely  good  things,  as 
we  know  by  the  stanzas  he  wrote  but  would  not  publish  with  his 
Elegy. 

An  interesting  subject  for  study  would  be  a  metrical  analysis  of 
this  poem  ;  although  the  measure  is  the  regulation  Heroic  Couplet, 
Gray's  use  of  it  is  more  free  and  less  monotonous  than  was  cus- 
tomary at  the  time.  Even  on  a  poor  limited  instrument,  confined  to 
only  one  key,  Gray  could  produce  more  music  than  many  a  poet 
could  with  better  materials  and  with  a  more  tuneful  theme. 


vn. 

ELEGY    WRITTEN    IN    A    COUNTRY    CHURCH-YARD. 

Although  nearly  all  the  editors  state  as  a  fact  that  the  Elegy  was 
begun  in  1742,  there  seems  to  be  no  actual  basis  for  this  statement. 
In  Mason's  Memoirs  of  Gray  (1775),  p.  157,  we  find:  "  I  am  inclined 
to  believe  that  the  Elegy  in  a  Country  Church-yard  was  begun,  if 
not  concluded,  at  this  time  also"  (August,  1742).  But  this  is  all 
the  genuine  evidence  I  have  been  able  to  discover.  In  Wakefield's 
Poems  of  Mr.  Gray  (1786),  p.  xi,  we  find  :  "  It  is  highly  probable  that 
the  Elegy  in  a  Country  Church-yard  was  begun  also  about  this 
time"  (August,  1742).  Later  editors  state  positively  that  it  was 
begun  in  1742  (Mitford,  Gosse,  Bradshaw,  Rolfe,  etc.).  Mason  seems 
to  have  had  evidence  for  the  1742  date  sufficient  to  satisfy  Wajlpole, 
though  what  that  evidence  was  we  do  not  know.  Writing  to  Mason, 
I  December  1773  {Letters,  VI,  22),  Walpole  says,  speaking  of  the 
forthcoming  J/<?W(?/>j- of  Gray:  "There  are  .  .  .  errors  in  point  of 
dates.  .  .  .  The  'Churchyard'  was,  I  am  persuaded,  posterior  to 
West's  death  [1742]  at  least  three  or  four  years,  as  you  will  see  by 
my  note.  At  least  I  am  sure  that  I  had  the  twelve  or  more  first 
lines  from  himself  above  three  years  after  that  period,  and  it  was 
long  before  he  finished  it."  Mason  evidently  made  some  satisfac- 
tory reply,  for  two  weeks  later,  14  December  1773  {Letters,  VI,  31), 
Walpole  writes  :  "Your  account  of  the  'Elegy'  puts  an  end  to  my 


NOTES   ON   THE   POEMS.  137 

other  criticism."  Then  Mason  in  1775  made  the  statement  just 
quoted  above.  At  any  rate,  1742  is  the  traditional  date  ;  we  know 
that  it  was  finished  at  Stoke  Foges,  in  June,  1750  (see  p.  70).  It 
is  not  probable  that  Gray  was  steadily  working  at  it  all  these  years, 
even  if  he  did  begin  it  in  1742.  For  interesting  conjectures  as  to 
causes  that  inspired  the  poem,  see  Gosse,  Life  of  Gvixy,  pp.  66,  96. 

Gray  was  in  no  more  haste  to  publish  the  poem  than  he  had 
apparently  been  to  complete  it.  After  June,  1750,  it  was  circulated 
in  manuscript  among  his  friends,  and  only  an  accident  hastened  its 
publication.  An  editor  of  the  Magazine  of  Magazines,  a  cheap 
periodical,  sent  word  to  Gray  that  he  was  about  to  print  it,  and 
naturally  the  author  did  not  care  to  have  a  poem  of  this  nature 
make  its  entrance  into  the  world  by  so  obscure  a  by-path.  He 
therefore  had  it  published  (anonymously)  on  February  16,  1751,  by 
the  great  London  publisher,  Dodsley. 

The  Elegy  leaped  immediately  into  enormous  popularity.  Edition 
followed  edition  in  rapid  succession  ;  it  was  translated  into  living 
and  dead  languages;  and  —  a  sure  evidence  of  popuiaiity  —  it  was 
repeatedly  parodied. 

The  facts  as  to  its  publication,  etc.,  may  be  found  in  Gosse's 
edition  of  Grafs  Works,  and  in  Gosse's  Life  of  Gray,  although  Mr. 
Gosse  curiously  contradicts  himself  on  pp.  66  and  96  of  the  latter 
book. 

-Ji.  The  curfew  tolls.     The  passage  from  Dante  quoted  by  Gray 
\S' Pnrgatorio,  canto  viii,  5,  6. 

The  standard  History  of  England 'v!\  Gray's  time,  that  by  Thomas 
Carte,  describes  the  curfew  law  of  William  the  Conqueror  as  "  an 
ordinance,  that  all  the  common  people  should  put  out  their  fire  and 
candle  and  go  to  bed  at  seven  a  clock,  upon  the  ringing  of  a  bell, 
called  the  coiivre  feu  bell,  on  pain  of  death  ;  a  regulation,  which 
having  been  made  in  an  assembly  of  the  estates  of  Nori7iandie  at 
Cae7t,  in  a.d.  1061,  to  prevent  the  debauches,  disorders,  and  other 
mischiefs  frequently  committed  at  night,  had  been  practised  with 
good  success  in  that  country."     (Book  v,  vol.  I,  p.  422,  1747.) 

2.  Wind.  Often  incorrectly  printed  and  quoted  "^^^nds." 
"  Wind "  is  better  for  two  reasons  :  it  is  more  melodious,  as  it 
avoids  the  hiss  of  a  double  s  ;  it  has  more  poetical  connotation, 
for  it  suggests  a  long,  slowly-moving  line  of  cattle  rather  than  a 
closely  packed  herd. 

Cf.  Joseph  Warton's  Ode  to  Eventing,  which  contains  a  number  of 
passages    strikingly   similar   to    the   Elegy,  although  —  so   far  as  I 


138  NOTES   ON   THE  POEMS. 

know  —  the  similarity  has  not  been  noticed  by  editors.  Warton's 
Odes  were  published  in  1746.  One  stanza  in  particular  Gray  may 
have  had  in  mind  when  he  composed  the  first  stanza  of  his  Elegy : 

"  Hail,  meek-eyed  maiden,  clad  in  sober  grey, 
Whose  soft  approach  the  weary  woodman  loves, 
As,  homeward  bent  to  kiss  his  prattling  babes, 
He  jocund  whistles  thro'  the  twilight  groves." 

Collins's  Odes  were  published  the  same  year  as  J.  Warton's  (1746), 
and  the  whole  atmosphere  of  Collins's  Ode  to  Evening  is  similar  to 
that  of  the  Elegy.     Cf.  especially  stanza  10  : 

"  And  hamlets  brown,  and  dim-discover'd  spires ; 
And  hears  their  simple  bell,  and  marks  o'er  all 
The  dewy  fingers  draw  the  gradual  dusky  veil." 

For  Gray's  remarks  on  Warton's  and  Collins's  Odes,  see  p.  81.  Cf. 
also  Ambrose  Philips,  Pastoral  ii,  end  : 

"And  now  behold  the  sun's  departing  ray 
O'er  yonder  hill,  the  sign  of  ebbing  day. 
With  songs  the  jovial  hinds  return  from  plow, 
And  unyok'd  heifers,  pacing  homeward,  low." 

5.  Now  fades,  etc.  This  is  a  bit  of  the  quiet  scenery  so  dear  to 
the  hearts  of  the  early  Romanticists  ;  and  in  the  next  stanza  we 
have  the  inevitable  owl  in  the  moonlight.  The  scenery  as  well  as 
the  meditations  of  the  Elegy  were  by  no  means  original  ;  they  simply 
established  more  firmly  literary  fashions  which  were  already  fast 
becoming  popular. 

6.  And  all  the  air.     "Air"  is  subject,  not  object,  of  "holds." 

7.  Save  where  the  beetle.     Cf.  Macbeth,  iii,  2 : 

"  The  shard-borne  beetle  with  his  drowsy  hums." 
Cf.  also  J.  Warton's  Ode  to  Evening: 

"  And  with  hoarse  hummings  of  unnumber'd  flies." 
Cf.  also  Collins's  Ode  to  Evening,  stanza  3  : 

"  Or  when  the  beetle  winds,  . 
His  small  but  sullen  horn, 
As  oft  he  rises  'midst  the  twilight  path, 
Against  the  pilgrim  borne  in  needless  hum." 

Milton's  Lycidas,  28  : 

"  What  time  the  grey-fly  winds  her  sultry  horn." 


NOTES   ON   THE   POEMS.  13Q 

II.  Bow'r.  In  the  old  sense  of  chamber.  The  bower  was  the 
sleeping  apartment  for  the  lord  and  lady  ;  while  the  hall  was  the 
living-room,  the  dinmg-room,  and,  for  the  retainers,  the  sleeping- 
room. 
■^  16  Rude.  Referring  to  their  rustic  simplicity.  The  poor  people 
were  always  buried  in  the  church-yard  ;  the  rich  inside  the  church. 

20.  Lowly  bed.  This  probably  refers  to  the  humble  couch  on 
which  they  have  spent  the  night ;  but  it  is  meant  to  suggest  the 
grave  as  well. 

21.  For  them  no  more,  etc.    Wakefield  quotes  Lucretius,  iv,  907  : 

"  At  jam  non  domus  accipiet  te  laeta ;  neque  uxor 
Optima,  nee  dukes  occurrent  oscula  nati 
Praeripere,  et  tacita  pectus  dulcedine  tangent." 

Wakefield  also  quotes  Thomson,  Winter,  311,  describing  the  man 
dying  in  the  snow  : 

"  In  vain  for  him  the  officious  wife  prepares 
The  fire  fair-blazing  and  the  vestment  warm: 
In  vain  his  little  children,  peeping  out 
Into  the  mingling  storm,  demand  their  sire 
With  tears  of  artless  innocence.     Alas  ! 
Nor  wife,  nor  children,  more  shall  he  behold. 
Nor  friends,  nor  sacred  home." 

26.    Glebe.      From  Latin  glaeba,  meaning  the  ground. 

29-32.  The  rimes  in  this  stanza  are  scarcely  exact ;  but  the  last 
line  is  one  of  the  most  famous  in  the  Elegy. 

33.  The  boast  of  heraldry,  etc.  Mitford  compares  West's 
Monody  on  Queen   Caroline,  Dodsley's  Collection  of  Poe?ns,  vol.  ii : 

"  Ah  me !  what  boots  us  all  our  boasted  power. 
Our  golden  treasure,  and  our  purple  state  1 
They  cannot  ward  th'  inevitable  hour, 
Nor  stay  the  fearful  violence  of  fate." 

This  Monody  directly  followed  Gray's  three  odes,  Eton,  Spring,  Cat, 

in  Dodsley. 

35.  Awaits.      ''  Hottr"  is  the  subject,  not  the  object  of  ''awaits." 

Many  editors  have    printed    ''aiuaif.'"  doubtless  thinking  that  '' tlu 

boast  of  heraldry."  etc.,   was  meant  to  be  the  subject. 
43.    Provoke.     In  the  Latin  sense,  provocare.     (Rolfe.) 
46.    Pregnant  with  celestial  fire.     Divinely  inspired. 


I40  NOTES   ON   THE   POEMS. 

50.  Rich  with  the  spoils  of  time.  Mitford  quotes  Sir  Thomas 
Browne,  Religio  Medici,  section  xiii  (verse)  : 

"  Rich  with  the  spoils  of  nature." 

51.  Rage.     Often  used  for  enthusiasm.     (Hales.) 

52.  Genial.  This  can  hardly  be  taken  in  the  modern  sense  ;  it 
may  be  used  in  the  sense  of  "  natural,"  "  belonging  to  one's  genius," 
or  possibly  with  the  meaning  "  endowed  with  genius." 

53.  Full  many  a  gem,  etc.  There  are  a  number  of  passages 
strikingly  similar  to  this.  Mitford  suggests  the  following  (I  give 
the  references  more  exactly)  from  Comiis,  lines  22-23  • 

"  That,  like  to  rich  and  various  gems,  inlay 
The  unadorned  bosom  of  the  deep." 

From  Ambrose  Philips,  The  Fable  of  Thide: 

"  Like  woodland  flowers,  which  paint  the  desert  glades, 
And  waste  their  sweets  in  unfrequented  shades." 

From  William  Chamberlayne,  Pharonnida  (London,  1659),  Book 
iv,  canto  5,  p.  94  : 

"  Like  beauteous  flowers  which  vainly  waste  the  scent 
Of  odors  in  unhanted  desarts." 

From  Bishop  Joseph  Hall,  Contemplations,  Book  vi,  Cont.  i  {Com- 
plete Works,  Oxford,  1863,  I'  ^Zl) '-  "There  is  many  a  rich  stone 
laid  up  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  many  a  fair  pearl  laid  up  in  the 
bosom  of  the  sea,  that  never  was  seen  nor  never  shall  be." 

Wakefield  quotes  Pope,  Rape  of  the  Lock,  iv,  157,  158  : 

"  There  kept  my  charms  conceal'd  from  mortal  eye, 
Like  roses,  that  in  deserts  bloom  and  die." 

A  writer  in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine  for  January,  1782,  calls 
attention  to  the  following  lines  from  Young,  Love  of  Fafne,  Satire  v, 
On  Women,  lines  229-232  : 

"  In  distant  wilds,  by  human  eyes  unseen, 
She  rears  her  flow'rs  and  spreads  her  velvet  green: 
Pure  gurgling  rills,  the  lowly  desert  trace, 
And  waste  their  music  on  the  savage  race." 

56.  This  line  almost  immediately  became  proverbial. 

57.  Some  village  Hampden,  etc.  See  remark  in  Introduction, 
p.  xxvi,  on  this  passage.     Observe  that  Gray  praises  Hampden  more 


NOTES  ON   THE   POEMS. 


141 


than  Cromwell,  who  was  at  that  time  still  generally  misunderstood. 
John  Hampden,  who  lived  in  the  same  county  that  contained  this 
church-yard,  refused  in  1636  to  pay  the  ship-money  tax  levied  by 
King  Charles  I. 

59.  Mute  inglorious  Milton.  The  glorious  Milton  rested  for 
some  time  in  a  cottage  in  the  little  village  of  Chalfont  St.  Giles, 
where  he  finished  Paradise  Lost.  This  cottage  is  a  very  short 
distance  from  Stoke  Poges. 

72.  Here  Gray  originally  inserted  the  following  four  stanzas  : 

"  The  thoughtless  world  to  Majesty  may  bow, 
Exalt  the  brave,  and  idolize  success; 
But  more  to  innocence  their  safety  owe, 

Than  Pow'r,  or  Genius,  e'er  conspir'd  to  bless. 

"  And  thou,  who  mindful  of  th'  unhonour'd  Dead, 
Dost  in  these  notes  their  artless  tale  relate, 
By  night  and  lonely  contemplation  led 
To  wander  in  the  gloomy  walks  of  fate : 

"  Hark!  how  the  sacred  Calm,  that  breathes  around, 
Bids  every  fierce  tumultuous  passion  cease  ; 
In  still  small  accents  whispering  from  the  groimd, 
A  grateful  earnest  of  eternal  peace. 

**  No  more,  with  reason  and  thyself  at  strife, 
Give  anxious  cares  and  endless  wishes  room ; 
But  through  the  cool  sequestered  vale  of  life 
Pursue  the  silent  tenor  of  thy  doom." 

One  must  agree  with  Mason  who  said,  "  I  think  the  third  of  these 
rejected  stanzas  equal  to  any  in  the  whole  Elegy.'" 

73.  Far  from,  etc.  Cf.  the  well-known  line  from  Drummond 
(ed.  Tumbull,  p.  38) : 

^  "  Far  from  the  madding  worldHng's  hoarse  discords." 

73.  If  there  were  no  comma  after  "strife,"  the  sense  of  this 
couplet  would  be  precisely  the  opposite  of  what  Gray  intended.  No 
wonder  he  was  particular  about  his  punctuation. 

78.    Still  =  always,  as  commonly  in  Shakspere. 

81.  Th'  unlettr'd  muse.  Epitaphs  are  famous  for  ridiculous 
errors. 

85,  86.  This  may  mean  one  of  two  things,  (a)  "For  who.  a  prey 
to  dumb  Forgetfulness,  e'er  resigned  this  pleasing  anxious  being  ? " 


142 


NOTES   ON   THE   POEMS. 


or  (b),  *'  For  who  e'er  resigned  this  pleasing  anxious  being  to  be  a 
prey  to  dumb  Forgetf  ulness  ? "  Hales  has  discussed  the  matter  at 
length. 

87.  Precincts.  This  word,  and  the  phrase  "pleasing  anxious 
being,"  sound  thoroughly  Augustan  ;  no  wonder  Dr.  Johnson 
thought  this  stanza  especially  fine. 

89-92.  This  stanza  poetically  answers  the  question  put  in  the 
preceding  one.  The  last  two  lines  are  strongly  imaginative.  Some 
editors  think  they  refer  to  the  epitaph  cut  on  the  stone,  though  no 
such  interpretation  is  really  necessary.  Could  Gray  have  had  in 
mind  Chaucer's  line,  as  Mitford  suggests  ? 

\  "  Yet  in  oure  asshen  colde  is  fyr  i-reke." 

Prologue  Reeve's  Tale,  28. 

92.    Petrarch,  Sonnet  170,  lines  12,  13,  14. 

95.    Chance  =  perchance. 

97-100.    After  this  stanza  Gray  originally  inserted  the  following  : 

"  Him  have  we  seen  the  greenwood  side  along, 
While  o'er  the  heath  we  hied  our  labour  done, 
Oft  as  the  woodlark  pip'd  her  farewell  song. 
With  wistful  eyes  pursue  the  setting  sun." 

100.  Lawn.  This  means  strictly,  "a  cleared  place  in  a  wood." 
The  word  indicates  nothing  artificial,  but  is  used  as  in  Milton : 
Lye  id  as,   25,  26  : 

"  Together  both,  ere  the  high  lawns  appeared 
Under  the  opening  eyelids  of  the  Morn." 

Mitford  quotes  (incorrectly)  Far.  Lost,  v,  428,  429  : 

"  Though  from  off  the  boughs  each  morn  we  brush  mellifluous  dews." 

loi.  Of  yonder  nodding  beech.  Cf.  Gray's  letter  to  Walpole, 
Sept.,  1737,  p.  93,  line  18  ff. 

105-112.  These  two  stanzas  are  now  inscribed  on  the  large  and 
unsightly  memorial  to  Gray,  which  stands  close  by  the  church-yard 
in  Stoke  Park. 

115.  For  thou  can'st  read.  This  may  mean  that  the  ''hoary- 
headed  swain "  could  ?iot  read  ;  or  it  may  be  a  bit  of  poetical 
emphasis. 

116.  After  this  stanza  Gray  originally  inserted  the  following 
beautiful    quatrain,    which,   as    Mr.   Lowell   justly  said,   cannot   be 


NOTES   ON   THE   POEMS.  143 

obliterated  from  the  memory  of  men,  even  if  Gray  did  run  his  pen 
through  it  : 

"  There  scatter'd  oft,  the  earhest  of  the  year. 

By  hands  unseen  are  show'rs  of  violets  found ; 
The  redbreast  loves  to  build  and  warble  there. 
And  little  footsteps  lightly  print  the  ground." 

118.  This  line,  which  soon  became  proverbial,  was  certainly  not 
descriptive  of  Gray  after  the  Elegy  was  published. 

119.  Fair  science,  etc.  Science  is  here  simply  a  general  term 
for  Knowledge.  The  line  means  that  Knowledge  looked  favorably 
upon  him  at  his  birth  (a  quasi-astrological  figure). 

127.    Petrarch,  Sonnet  115,  line  12  : 

"  Ma  freddo  foco,  e  paventosa  speme." 


VIII. 

A   LONG    STORY. 

This  poem  was  written  in  1750,  and  was  first  published  in  the 
ornate  Six  Poems  edition  of  1753.  Gray  was  unwilling  to  have  it 
published  again,  saying  that  it  was  of  only  personal  interest  (see 
Gray's  lVo?'ks,  III,  285).  It  was  therefore  omitted  in  the  regular 
1768  edition.  Gosse  and  Bradshaw  are  wrong,  however,  in  saying 
that  this  poem  was  printed  only  once  in  Gray's  lifetime  (see  Gosse's 
Li/e  of  Gray,  p.  103,  and  Bradshaw's  Aldine  edition,  p.  231),  for  it 
was  published  in  a  Dublin  edition  of  Gray's  poetry  in  1768.  (See 
Bibliography.) 

The  circumstances  connected  with  the  birth  of  this  poem  are  as 
follows  :  Lady  Cobham,  who  lived  at  Stoke  Poges,  had  seen  a  MS. 
copy  of  the  Elegy,  and  was  very  anxious  to  know  who  the  author 
was.  Learning  that  it  was  a  Mr.  Thomas  Gray,  and  that  this  quiet 
gentleman  was  then  (August,  1750)  living  at  his  aunt's  house  at  Stoke, 
she  determined  to  seek  his  acquaintance.  She  used  as  a  cat's  paw 
two  ladies  who  were  then  with  her.  Lady  Schaub  and  Miss  Harriet 
Speed,  and  persuaded  them  to  call  on  Gray's  aunt.  The  two  ladies 
did  so  ;  but  unfortunately  Mr.  Gray  was  not  at  home.  In  a  spirit 
of  fun  they  left  a  little  note  for  him.  Gray  returned  the  call,  and 
became  afterward  intimately  acquainted  with  Miss  Speed.     He  cele- 


144  NOTES  ON   THE  POEMS. 

brated  the  call  made  on  him  by  playfully  writing  his  Long  Story, 
in  the  month  of  August,  1750,  as  we  know  by  his  own  note  to  the 
Pembroke  MS.  of  the  poem. 

What  Miss  Speed  thought  we  may  see  from  her  letter  to  Gray 
(Tovey,  Gray  and  his  Frietids,  p.  197): 

"Sir, 

I  am  as  much  at  a  loss  to  bestow  the  Commendation  due  to  your  per- 
formance as  any  of  our  modern  Poets  would  be  to  imitate  them ;  Everybody 
that  has  seen  it,  is  charm'd  and  Lady  Cobham  was  the  first,  tho'  not  the  last 
that  regretted  the  loss  of  the  400  stanzas  [should  be  500] ;  all  that  I  can 
say  is,  that  your  obliging  inclination  in  sending  it  has  fully  answered ;  as  it 
not  only  gave  us  amusement  the  rest  of  the  Evening,  but  always  will,  on 
reading  it  over.  Lady  Cobham  and  the  rest  of  the  Company  hope  to  have 
your's  tomorrow  at  dinner. 

"  I  am  your  oblig'd  &  obedient 

"Henrietta  Jane  Speed. 
"  Sunday." 
[prob.  Aug.  1750.] 

2.  An  ancient  pile.  The  mansion  at  Stoke  was  then  occupied 
by  Lady  Cobham.  It  had  previously  belonged  to  the  Earls  of  Hun- 
tingdon and  the  Hatton  family  (but  see  note  on  v.  11). 

n.  My  grave  Lord-keeper.  Cf.  Naunton's  famous  sketch  :  "  Sir 
Christopher  Hatto7i  came  into  the  Court  as  his  opposite,  Sir  John 
Ferrot,  was  wont  to  say  by  the  Galliard,  for  he  came  thither  as  a 
Private  Gentleman  of  the  Innes  of  Court  in  a  Mask ;  and  for  his 
activity  and  person,  which  was  tall  and  proportionable,  taken  into 
favour  :  he  was  first  made  Vice-Chamberlain,  and  shortly  afterward 
advanced  to  the  place  of  Lord  Chancellor :  a  Gentleman,  that  besides 
the  graces  of  his  person,  and  dancing,  had  also  the  adjectaments 
of  a  strong  and  subtill  capacity,  one  that  could  soon  learn  the  dis- 
cipline and  garb  both  of  the  times  and  Court ;  the  truth  is,  he  had 
a  large  proportion  of  gifts  and  endowments,  but  too  much  of  the 
season  of  envy  ;  and  he  was  a  meer  vegetable  of  the  Court,  that 
sprung  up  at  night,  and  sunk  again  at  his  noon."  Sir  Robert 
Naunton,  Fragmenta  Regalia,  1653  (\vritten  probably  about  1630), 
ed.  Arber,  p.  44.     Hatton  was  made  Lord  Chancellor  in  1587. 

Gray  has  perhaps  purposely  mixed  up  Hatton's  two  famous  dancing 
exploits  {a)  that  in  his  youth,  by  which  he  danced  himself  into  Queen 
Elizabeth's  favor ;  [b)  that  which  has  given  rise  to  the  "  Lie  there. 
Lord  Chancellor "  anecdote.  The  famous  incident  of  Hatton's 
dancing  when  Lord  Chancellor  is  derived  from  a  letter  from  Captain 


NOTES   ON   THE   POEMS. 


145 


Francis  Allen  to  Anthony  Bacon,  17  August  1589,  excerpted  by  Sir 
Harris  Nicolas,  Life  ami  Times  of  Hatton,  1847,  p.  47S  :  "  My  Lord 
Chancellor's  heir,  Sir  William  Hatton,  hath  married  Judge  Gawdy's 
daughter  and  heir  ;  and  my  Lord  Chancellor  danced  the  measures 
at  the  solemnity.  He  left  the  gown  in  the  chair,  saying,  '  Lie  thou 
there,  Chancellor.'"  Hatton  was  then  49  years  old  (born  1540). 
Nicolas  shows  that  Gray  was  "  mistaken  in  supposing  that  Sir 
Christopher  Hatton  ever  o\vned  Stoke  Pogeis,  or  ever  resided  there. 
The  manor  house  was  re-built,  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  by 
Henry  Earl  of  Huntingdon  ;  and  Sir  Edward  Coke,  who  had  married 
Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Thomas  Earl  of  Exeter,  and  second  wife  and 
widow  of  Sir  William  Hatton,  the  Chancellor's  nephew,  held  it  as 
lessee  under  the  Crown  in  1601,  in  which  year  he  entertained  the 
Queen  there  ;  and  about  1621  it  was  granted  to  him  by  King  James 
the  First,"  etc.  Nicolas,  p.  479.  A  full  account  of  the  vicissitudes 
of  ownership  may  be  found  in  Lysons,  Magna  Britannia,  1806,  I, 
i,635ff. 

II.  Brawls.  "A  kind  of  French  dance  resembling  a  cotillon." 
Murray  (who  gives  abundant  illustrative  quotations).  What  the 
letter  says  the  Lord  Chancellor  actually  did  is,  —  to  dance  in  the 
measures,  slow,  sedate  dances,  minuets. 

13.  His  bushy  beard.  The  usual  portrait  of  Hatton  represents 
him  with  a  full  but  not  shaggy  beard.  The  reason  for  Gray's  epithet 
may  be  seen  from  the  following  interesting  passage  in  Joseph  Spence's 
Polytnetis,  dialogue  vi,  2d  ed.,  London,  1755,  p.  52  :  "It  is  true  we 
scarce  ever  see  a  full  beard  on  any  but  the  lowest  sort  of  people 
among  us ;  and  that  has  given  us  a  mean  idea  of  the  thing  itself. 
Nature  perhaps  designed  it  for  the  ornament  of  old  age ;  but  custom 
has  got  the  better  of  her.  ...  A  full  beard  still  carries  that  idea 
of  majesty  with  it,  all  over  the  East  :  which  it  may,  possibly,  have 
had  ever  since  the  times  of  the  patriarchal  government  there.  The 
Grecians  had  a  share  of  this  oriental  notion  of  it.  The  very  name 
is  apt  to  carry  something  low  and  rude  along  with  it  among  us." 
The  two  styles  of  trimming  the  beard  in  vogue  in  the  Elizabethan 
time  were  the  bodkin  cut  (the  peaked  beard  which  we  are  apt  to 
regard  as  peculiarly  Elizabethan)  and  the  "bush"  (see  Lyly's  Endi- 
mion,  iii,  3);  but  it  is  not  likely  that  Gray  had  this  distinction  in 
mind. 

16.  Tho'  Pope  and  Spaniard.  Referring  to  the  defeat  of  the 
Spanish  Armada  in  1 5S8.  Pope  refers  more  strictly  to  the  papal 
opposition     to    Queen    Elizabeth,    which   found   its   most   decided 


146  NOTES   ON   THE   POEMS. 

expression  in  the  bull  of  Pius  V.  (1570),  which  released  English 
Catholics  from  their  allegiance  and  declared  that  Elizabeth  had  no 
right  to  her  crown, 

23.  A  brace  of  Warriors.  Lady  Schaub  and  Miss  Speed.  —  Buff. 
A  leather  military  coat. 

25.  The  first.  Lady  Schaub.  —  Cap-a-pee.  From  head  to  foot, 
at  all  points.  Gray  means  she  was  dressed  in  the  latest  French 
style. 

29.  The  other  Amazon.  Miss  Harriet  Speed,  or  more  properly, 
Miss  Henrietta  Jane  Speed.  Their  acquaintance  led  to  an  intimate 
friendship,  which  friends  on  both  sides  thought  would  result  in 
marriage.  At  any  rate,  Miss  Speed  is  the  only  lady  whom  Gray 
ever  seems  to  have  addressed  or  considered  romantically.  For 
further  details,  see  Tovey,  Gray  and  His  Friends,  section  v. 

31.    Cobham.     Lady  Cobham  treated  Miss  Speed  as  a  daughter. 

37.  Capucine.  "A  female  garment,  consisting  of  a  cloak  and 
hood,  made  in  imitation  of  the  dress  of  Capuchin  friars  ;  whence  its 
name."     Johnson. 

41.    P 1.     The    Rev.    Mr.    Purt,    Gray's    neighbor,    who    had 

informed  Lady  Cobham  of  the  name  and  whereabouts  of  Gray. 
Mr.  Purt  was  offended  at  his  name's  being  mentioned  in  this  poem. 

51.  Her  high  commission.  Alluding  to  Henry  IV.'s  edict  against 
Welsh  bards.  Mitford  quotes  as  follows  :  "  And  it  is  enacted,  that 
no  master-rimour,  minstrel,  or  other  vagabond,  be  in  any  wise  sus- 
tained in  the  land  of  Wales,  to  make  commoiths,  or  gatherings  upon 
the  people  there."  Mitford's  note  is  defaced  by  two  bad  blunders, 
which  Bradshaw  repeats.  This  is  the  French  text  of  the  ordinance 
of  1403  from  Wotton;  Leges  Wallicae,  1730,  p.  548:  "Item,  Pur 
eschiever  plusours  diseasz  &  meschefs  quaunt  advenuz  devaunt  cez 
heurez  en  la  terre  de  Gales  par  plusours  Wastours,  Rymours,  Minis- 
tralx  &  autres  Vacabundez,  ordenuz  est  &  establez  que  nullez 
Wastours,  Rymours,  Ministralx  ne  Vacabundez  soent  ascunement 
sustenuz  en  la  terre  de  Galez  pur  faire  commortha  ou  coillage  sur 
la  commune  poeple  illoeques."  Observe  that  Mitford's  "  master- 
rimour  "  is  a  mistake,  and  that  "  commoiths "  should  be  "  com- 
morths."  In  1401  Henry  IV.  had  also  made  a  previous  ordinance, 
much  to  the  same  effect.  Henry  IV.'s  edicts  were  practically 
reenactments  of  Edward  I.'s  (see  notes  on  the  Bard).  There  were 
many  other  and  more  recent  enactments  against  wandering  minstrels. 

54.  Ventured.  "  Entered  "  rimes  with  this  word  here.  This  rime 
represents  the  common  pronunciation  of  "ventured"  at  that  time. 


A'OTES   O.V   THE   POEMS. 


147 


59.    His  Mother.      Gray's  mother  and  aunt  lived  together. 

64.  Tester.     A  canopy  over  the  bed. 

65.  Into  the   drawers,  etc.     Mitford  remarks  on  the  similarity 

between  the  style  of  this  part  of  the  Long  Story  and  that  of  Prior's 

The  Dove,  and  quotes  the  following  stanzas  (9,  25,  27)  from  Prior's 

poem : 

"  With  one  great  peal  they  rap  the  door, 

Like  footmen  on  a  visiting  day. 

Folks  at  her  house  at  such  an  hour ! 

Lord  !  what  will  all  the  neighbours  say  ? 

"  Her  keys  he  takes,  her  doors  unlocks  ; 

Through  wardrobe  and  through  closet  bounces ; 
Peeps  into  every  chest  and  box, 

Turns  all  her  furbelows  and  flounces. 

"  I  marvel  much,  she  smiling  said, 

Your  poultry  cannot  yet  be  found; 
Lies  he  in  yonder  slipper  dead. 

Or  may  be,  in  the  tea-pot  drowned ! " 

80.  A  spelL  The  little  note  left  by  the  ladies  :  "  Lady  Schaub's 
compliments  to  Mr.  Gray;  she  is  sorry  not  to  have  found  him  at 
home,  to  tell  him  that  Lady  Brown  is  very  well." 

83.  Transparent  birdlime.  Playfully  alluding  to  his  being  taken 
captive  by  the  note. 

93-96.    A  thoroughly  Augustan  stanza. 

99.  The  lady  Janes.  The  great  pictures  of  the  Elizabethan 
ladies  that  hung  in  the  room  come  down  from  their  frames,  as  their 
spirits  were  said  to  do  when  the  nights  were  especially  dark. 

103.  Styack.  Mrs.  Tyacke,  the  housekeeper.  Gray  may  have 
purposely  changed  her  name  a  little,  in  his  playful  poem. 

116.  Squib.  James  Squibb,  who  was  in  Lady  Cobham's  service 
as  Groom  of  the  Chambers. 

128.  He  ne'er  was  for  a  conj'rer  taken.  To  say  a  person  is  no 
conjurer  is  a  mild  way  of  calling  him  not  over- wise.  Cf.  Gray's 
letter  to  Wharton,  Jan.  1761  {Works,  III,  83):  "he  is  a  very  sober 
man;  good  natured,  and  honest,  and  no  conjurer";  and  18  Sept. 
1754  {Works,  II,  255):  "Dr.  Akenside  (I  perceive)  is  no  conjurer  in 
Architecture."  In  the  present  passage  there  is  an  obvious  play  on 
words. 

129.  Prudes.  The  spirits  of  the  haughty  ladies  in  the  paintings. 
—  Hagged.  Like  a  hag.  Nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  word 
"haggard"  (cf.  note  on  The  Bard,  v.  18). 


148  NOTES   ON   THE   POEMS. 

135.    The  square-hoods,  i.e.,  the  ladies  mentioned  above  as  prudes. 
They  are  of  course  sticklers  for  exciusiveness  and  etiquette. 
144.    Rubbers.     The  Lady's  games  at  cards. 


IX. 

THE    PROGRESS    OF    POESY. 

This  ode  Gray  wrote  in  1754  at  Cambridge.  It  was  printed  in 
1757,  in  company  with  The  Bard,  at  Horace  Walpole's  press  at 
Strawberry-Hill,  with  the  following  title :  "  Odes  by  Mr.  Gray. 
Printed  at  Strawberry-Hill.  For  R.  and  J.  Dodsley  in  Pali-Mall. 
MDCCLVII."  This  thin  quarto  contained  only  a  very  few  notes. 
Walpole,  writing  to  Sir  Horace  Mann,  4  August  1757,  said,  "I  send 
you  two  copies  ...  of  a  very  honourable  opening  of  my  press  — 
two  amazing  Odes  of  Mr.  Gray  :  they  are  Shakspearian,  they  are 
Pindaric,  they  are  sublime  !  consequently,  I  fear,  a  little  obscure: 
the  second  particularly,  by  the  confinement  of  the  measure,  and  the 
nature  of  prophetic  vision,  is  mysterious.  I  could  not  persuade  him 
to  add  more  notes  ;  he  says,  whatever  wants  to  be  explained,  don't 
deserve  to  be."  In  the  1768  edition  of  his  poems.  Gray  added 
explanatory  notes  to  these  odes,  and  in  his  sarcastic  Advertiseynent 
(see  p.  26)  told  the  public  why  he  did  so.  Gray's  foot-notes  must 
certainly  be  read,  as  they  are  exceedingly  important  for  a  correct 
understanding  of  his  Pindaric  Odes. 

The  selections  from  Gray's  letters  which  contain  the  most  im- 
portant references  to  these  Odes  are  given  on  pp.  73,  74,  76,  and  87. 

Historical  Sketch  of  the  English  Pindaric  Ode. 

The  popular  notion  is  that  the  poet  Cowley  (1618-1667)  was  the 
first  man  to  write  Pindaric  Odes  in  English.  He  published  his 
Pindaric  Odes  in  1656.  They  were  not  a  mere  imitation,  but  an 
invention.  But  he  was  more  indebted  to  earlier  work  than  seems  to 
be  generally  supposed.  Spenser's  Epithala77iion  (1595)  reminds  one 
instantly  of  later  odes.  His  stanzas  fall  into  three  or  four  parts, 
with  short  lines  to  break  the  monotony,  but  the  parts  are  held 
together  by  rime.  The  grouping  of  verses  is  somewhat  similar  to 
what  we  see  in  the  Pindaric  Odes. 


NOTES   ON   THE   POEMS.  149 

It  is  sometimes  claimed  that  l^en  Jonson  wrote  the  first  Pin- 
daric. Ode.  In  his  Underwoods  there  is  a  Pindaric  Ode  To  the 
Immortal  Alemory  and  Friendship  of  that  Noble  Pair,  Sir  Lucius 
Gary,  and  Sir  H.  A/orison.  This  is  divided  as  Pindar's  odes  were 
divided,  into  Strophes,  Antistrophes,  and  Epodes.  Jonson  called 
his  Strophe  a  "  Turn,"  his  Antistrophe  a  '  Counter-turn,"  and  his 
Epode  the  "Stand."  Undoubtedly  he  had  classic  odes  in  mind. 
Thomas  Randolph,  in  his  Ode  to  Ben  Jonson,  upon  the  occasion 
of  the  failure  of  The  N^ew  Inn,  says  :  "  'Twere  fond  to  let  all  other 
flames  expire.  To  sit  by  Pindar's  fire";  thus  recognizing  Jonson's 
Pindaric  attempts.  Randolph  himself  wrote  poems  that  look  some- 
thing like  Pindaric  Odes. 

Cowley's  Pindarics  are  by  no  means  a  strict  imitation  of  Pindar. 
They  are  simply  groups  of  verses  of  irregular  length  ending  with  a 
long  line.  At  the  time  (1656)  his  curious  metrical  forms  surprised 
everybody.  He  thought  his  rhapsodies  and  variations  made  his 
odes  Pindaric  ;  and  some  of  his  odes  were  in  reality  paraphrases  of 
Pindar.  But  of  course  it  was  his  deliberately  studied  enthusiasm 
joined  with  his  poor  ear  for  music,  that  killed  his  odes. 

Congreve  wrote  true  Pindaric  Odes,  going  back  more  to  Ben 
Jonson's  notions,  without  apparently  knowing  what  Jonson  had 
done.  The  most  famous  man  to  write  Pindarics  after  Cowley  and 
Congreve,  was  Gray.  It  is  unnecessary  to  say  that  the  Progress 
of  Poesy  and  the  Bard  3.re  the  best  Pindaric  Odes  ever  written. 

THE    METRE. 

As  Hales  pointed  out,  this  Ode  is  really  divided  into  3  stanzas, 
with  41  lines  in  each  stanza.  Again,  each  stanza  is  divided  into 
3  parts  —  strophe,  antistrophe,  and  epode  —  the  turn,  counter-turn, 
and  after-song,  Greek  theatrical  names.  The  three  strophes,  anti- 
strophes,  and  epodes  are  identical  in  construction  ;  hence  the  archi- 
tecture of  the  whole  poem  is  curiously  symmetrical,  though  one 
could  easily  read  it  without  any  perception  of  this  fact. 

This  was,  of  course,  in  imitation  of  the  symmetry  of  the  Greek 
odes,  which  particularly  appealed  to  Gray's  precise  metrical  sense. 

His  own  remarks  on  the  metre  are  interesting.  In  a  letter  to 
Wharton,  9  March  1755  (Works,  II,  262),  he  said  :  "  I  am  not  quite 
of  your  opinion  with  regard  to  Strophe  and  Antistrophe.  Setting 
aside  the  differences,  methinks  it  has  little  or  no  effect  upon  the  ear, 
which  scarce  perceives  the  regular  return  of  metres  at  so  great  a 


i^o  NOTES   ON   THE   POEMS. 

distance  from  one  another.  To  make  it  succeed,  I  am  persuaded 
the  stanzas  must  not  consist  of  above  nine  lines  each  at  the  Jiiost. 
Pindar  has  several  such  odes."  Mason  adds  an  interesting  note  : 
"  He  often  made  the  same  remark  to  me  in  conversation,  which  led 
me  to  form  the  last  Ode  of  Caractacus  in  shorter  stanzas  :  But  we 
must  not  imagine  that  he  thought  the  regular  Pindaric  method 
without  its  use  ;  though,  as  he  justly  says,  when  formed  in  long 
stanzas,  it  does  not  fully  succeed  in  point  of  effect  on  the  ear  :  for 
there  was  nothing  which  he  more  disliked  than  that  chain  of  irreg- 
ular stanzas  which  Cowley  introduced,  and  falsely  called  Pindaric  ; 
and  which  from  the  extreme  facility  of  execution,  produced  a 
number  of  miserable  imitators.  ...  It  is  also  to  be  remarked,  that 
Mr.  Congreve,  who  first  introduced  the  regular  Pindaric  form  into 
the  English  language,  made  use  of  the  short  stanzas  which  Mr. 
Gray  here  recommends." 

The  Motto.  Pindar,  Olymp.  ii,  153,  154.  Gray  himself  translates 
this  motto  in  a  Letter  to  the  Rev.  James  Brown,  17  Feb.  1763 
{Works,  III,  148):  "The  Odes  .  .  ,,  as  their  motto  shews,  were 
meant  to  be  vocal  to  the  intelligent  alone.  How  few  they  were  in  my 
own  country,  Mr.  Howe  can  testify  ;  and  yet  my  ambition  was 
terminated  by  that  small  circle."  Cf.  Letter  to  Wharton,  7  Sept. 
1757  {Works,  II,  330)  :  "Miss  Sp[eed]  seems  to  understand;  and  to 
all  such,  as  do  not,  she  says  —  (poivavra  crweToTai  —  in  so  many 
words.     And  this  is  both  my  motto  and  comment." 

The  Critical  Review,  IV,  167,  says,  "The  author  might,  with 
great  propriety,  have  added 

k% 

hk  TO  wdv  epfiTjviojv 

It  is  interesting  to  see  that  in  the  edition  of  1768,  Gray  actually 
adopted  this  suggestion. 

I.  Gray's  note  on  this  line  inaccurately  quotes  Psalms,  57,  8  : 
"Awake  up,  my  glory;  awake,  psaltery  and  harp."  The  word 
"lute,"  which  occurs  in  Gray's  quotation,  does  not  occur  in  Young's 
Analytical  Concordance. 

JEolian  lyre.  Gray's  note  on  this  is  said  to  have  been  called  out 
by  a  blundering  critic  {Critical  Review,  IV,  167)  who  mistook  the 
yEolian  lyre  for  the  harp  of  ^olus,  or  wind-harp :  "  The  first  of 
these  odes  is  addressed  to  the  ^Eolian  lyre,  which  it  emulates  in  the 
enchanting  softness,  ravishing  flow,  and  solemn   tones  of  melody. 


NOTES   ON   THE   POEMS.  15 1 

...  A  severe  critic  would  .  .  .  censure  the  sentiment  .  .  .  which 
represents  the  Loves  dancing  to  the  sound  of  this  lyre.  Such  an 
instrument  as  the  /Eolian  harp,  which  is  altogether  uncertain  and 
irregular,  must  be  very  ill  adapted  to  the  dance,  which  is  one  con- 
tinued regular  movement."  The  whole  article  deserves  to  be  read 
as  an  example  of  the  puerilities  that  then  passed  for  criticism. 
The  same  critic  suggested  that  v.  20  ff.  meant,  strictly  speaking, 
that  the  lyre  not  the  eagle  was  perching  on  Jove's  sceptred  hand. 
That  Gray  had  seen  this  article  is  obvious  from  two  places  in  his 
letters  {Works,  II,  327):  "Even  the  Critical  Review  (Mr.  Franklin, 
I  am  told),  that  is  rapt  and  surprised  and  shudders  at  me,  yet 
mistakes  the  .'Eolian  for  the  harp  of  ^olus  which  indeed,  as  he 
observes,  is  a  very  bad  instrument  to  dance  to."  A  second  is  in  a 
letter  to  Wharton,  7  Sept.  1757:  "The  Critical  Review  you  have 
seen  or  may  see.  He  is  in  raptures  (they  say  it  is  Professor 
Franklin)  but  mistakes  the  ^olian  lyre  for  the  harp  of  itolus  and 
on   this  mistake  founds  a   compliment   and   a  criticism."     ( Works, 

11,331-) 

7.    Cf.   Horace,   Odes,  iii,  29,   32  :  perhaps  Gray  thought  this  too 

obvious  to  mention. 

12.    Rebellow.     Imitated  from  Latin   reboare :   cf.  "  reboant  sil- 

vaeque  et  longus  Olympus,"  Vergil,  Georg.  iii,  223.     Mitford  refers 

to  Pope's  Iliad,  "  Rocks  rebellow  to  the  roar." 

14.  sweet  and  solemn-breathing  airs.  Cf.  Milton,  Comus,  555  : 
"  A  soft  and  solemn-breathing  sound." 

15.  Shell.  Alluding  to  the  mythical  origin  of  the  lyre  ;  Hermes 
made  it  from  a  tortoise  shell. 

17.  The  Lord  of  War.  Ares,  or  Mars.  He  was  especially 
worshiped  in  Thrace.  Cf.  Chaucer's  splendid  description  of  "  the 
grete  temple  of  Mars  in  Trace"  {lOiighfs  Tale,  vv.  rii4ff.). 

21.  Feather'd  king.  The  eagle,  sacred  to  Zeus,  and  often 
represented  with  the  thunderbolt  in  his  clutch. 

27.  Idalia.  This  was  a  town  in  the  island  of  Cyprus,  containing 
a  temple  where  Venus  was  worshiped.  Venus  first  landed  on 
Cyprus,  after  she  had  been  born  from  the  foam  of  the  sea  ;  but  the 
island  Cythera,  in  the  ^gean  sea,  gave  the  name  Cytherea  to 
Venus,  as  many  believed  that  she  had  appeared  there  before  landing 
at  Cyprus. 

31.  This  line  in  rhythm  is  certainly  reminiscent  of  U Allegro.  It 
is  useless  to  point  out  all  the  words  that  Milton  and  Gray  happened 
to  use  in  common. 


1^2  NOTES   ON   THE   POEMS. 

35.    Homer,  Odyssey,  0,  265. 

40.  Gray's  poetry  is  seldom  so  warm  as  this,  though  this  would 
be  cold  for  some  poets. 

41.  Gray's  note  on  this  line  refers  to  lines  that  are  twice  quoted 
in  Athenaeus,  viz.  Athen.  xiii,  604  (ed.  Kaibel):  cJs  /caXuis  ^pvvLxo% 
eTToirjaev  ei-rras  •  Xd/XTrei  5'  eirl  iropcpvpeaLS  irapyai  (pQs  epojTos,  and 
again,  Athen.  xiii,  564 :  ^pvvix'^^  t^  f '"'^  "^^^  TpwiXov  e07?  XdixireLv  iwl 
Trop(pvpa7s  irap^cn  cpibs  epwros.  Gray  no  doubt  had  the  former  one 
in  mind.  The  poet  is  Phrynichus  tragicus  (there  was  also  a  comic 
poet  of  the  name).  It  is  fragment  2  of  Phrynichus  in  the  fourth 
ed.  of  Bergk's  Poet.  Lyr.  Gr. 

43.  Here  Gray  drops  back  into  his  old  fondness  for  Abstractions. 

46.  Fond.     Foolish. 

50.  Birds  of  boding  cry.     The  regulation  Screech-owl. 

52.  The  quotation  from  Cowley  is  given  inaccurately  in  Gray's 
note  ;  it  is  from  the  Pindaric  ode  Brutus,  55-57  : 

"  One  would  have  thought  't  had  heard  the  Morning  crow 
Or  seen  her  well-appointed  Star 
Come  marching  up  the  Eastern  Hill  afar." 

53.  Hyperion.  The  Titan,  who  was  the  father  of  the  sun,  moon, 
and  stars.     Here  used,  as  often,  for  the  sun. 

Glitt'ring  shafts.     The  rays  of  the  morning  sun. 

54.  Vergil,  Aeneid,  vi,  797.     Petrarch,  Canzojie  5,  line  48. 

57.  This  line  is  entirely  omitted  in  Bradshaw's  Aldine  edition  of 
Gray. 

68.    Ilissus.     A  river  flowing  through  Athens. 

6g.  Maeander.  The  progress  of  this  river  was  so  winding  that 
it  gave  its  name  to  our  verb,  "  meander."     It  was  in  Phrygia. 

70-71.  Milton  suggests  "by  slow  Meander's  margent  green"  as 
the  residence  of  the  nymph  Echo  {Co?mcs,  v.  232). 

82.  Gray  means  that  poetry  flourishes  best  in  eras  of  national 
vigor  and  political  independence  ;  when  Greece  was  conquered,  the 
Muses  went  to  Rome  ;  after  the  downfall  of  the  Roman  empire, 
they  went  to  Albion,  i.e.,  England. 

84.  Nature's  Darling.  In  the  two  centuries  that  followed 
Shakspere,  he  was  often  spoken  of  as  the  child  of  Nature  —  in  con- 
trast to  his  more  learned  contemporaries,  who  drew  their  inspiration 
from  the  classics.  The  well-kno\Am  passage  in  H Allegro  was  chiefly 
responsible  for  this. 

86.  The  mighty  Mother.  This  may  refer  either  to  Nature  or  to 
Poetry. 


NOTES   ON  THE   POEMS.  153 

89.    Pencil.     Paint  brush. 

95.  It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  Gray  puts  Milton  apparently 
equal  to  Shakspere,  and  that  in  this  stanza  he  distinctly  puts 
Uiyden  below  the  Puritan  poet.  In  Gray's  earlier  years,  Dryden 
was  his  idol  and  model  ;  but  at  this  time,  in  common  with  all  the 
other  Romanticists,  he  gave  himself  up  to  the  worship  of  Milton. 
It  is  interesting,  however,  to  observe  that  (iray  never  forgot  his 
debt  to  Dryden.  In  a  letter  to  Beattie,  2  Oct.  1765  {IVo/As,  Hi. 
222)  he  said  :  "  Rememl^er  Dryden,  and  be  blind  to  all  his  faults." 
Cf.  Mason's  note,  from  which  it  appears  that  Gray  told  Peattie  "  that 
if  there  was  any  Excellence  in  his  own  numbers  he  had  learned  it 
wholly  from  that  great  poet.  And  pressed  him  with  great  earnest- 
ness to  study  him,  as  his  choice  of  words  and  versification  were 
singularly  happy  and  harmonious." 

98.  Lucretius,  i,  "jt,,  74. 

99.  The  sentence  from  Ezekiel,  i,  28,  reads  more  exactly :  "  This 
was  the  appearance  of  the  likeness  of  the  glory  of  the  Lord." 

102.    Homer,  Odyssey,  0,  64. 

Closed  his  eyes.  Referring  to  Milton's  blindness.  If  Gray's 
explanation  is  not  scientific,  it  is  certainly  poetical.  But  Dr.  John- 
son has  succeeded  in  accounting  prosaically  for  this  figure.  "  His 
account  of  Milton's  blindness,  if  we  suppose  it  caused  by  study 
in  the  formation  of  his  poem,  a  supposition  surely  allowable,  is 
poetically  true,  and  happily  imagined."  {Life  of  Gray.)  Unhappily 
for  this  suggestion,  Milton's  blindness  had  no  such  cause. 

106.  fob,  xxxix,  19. 

107.  Long-resounding  pace.  The  comparison  in  Pope's  famous 
lines  (suggested  by  Mitford)  must  occur  to  every  one  : 

"  Waller  was  smooth  ;  but  Dryden  taught  to  join 
The  varying  verse,  the  full-resounding  line, 
The  long  majestic  March,  and  Energy  divine." 

/;«.  of  Horace,  Book  ii,  Ep.  i,  vv.  267-69. 

108.  Fancy.  Imagination.  The  distinction  between  fancy  and 
imagination  drawn  by  Wordsworth  in  the  Preface  to  his  Lyrical 
Ballads,  ed.  181 5,  and  now  usually  observed  in  criticism  was  not 
much  heeded  in  the  language  of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries. 

no.  Cowley,  The  Prophet  (v.  20)  in  The  Mistress.  Incorrectly 
quoted  by  Gray  : 

"  Tears,  which  shall  understand,  and  speak." 


154 


NOTES    ON   THE    POEMS. 


ill.  Gray's  note  on  this  line  is  interesting,  as  showing  how 
seriously  he  took  Mason  and  Caractacus.  The  poet  William  Mason 
(1725-1797)  was  an  intimate  friend  of  Gray's,  a  servile  imitator  of 
Milton's  and  Gray's  poetry,  and  the  executor  of  Gray's  literary 
remains.  By  far  his  most  enduring  contribution  to  literature  is  his 
Memoirs  of  Gray  (1775).  Mason  wrote  two  tragedies,  Elfrida 
(175 1),  and  Caractacus  (1759).  These  are  on  the  model  of  the 
ancient  Greek  drama,  and  though  they  contain  some  fine  passages, 
they  lack  vitality.  He  stoutly  upheld  the  Unities  and  insisted  on 
the  retention  of  the  Chorus.  Caractacus  is  a  story  of  Druid  times, 
in  which  Druids  play  an  important  part ;  the  scene  is  laid  in  Mona. 
Gray  criticised  Mason's  poems  in  MS.  with  great  care,  and  often 
with  merciless  severity ;  but  in  this  instance  he  seems  to  have 
seriously  believed  that  Mason  had  produced  something  good. 
Mason  and  Gray  were  often  coupled  together  by  contemporary 
critics,  and  the  alleged  obscurity  of  their  odes  was  freely  parodied 
(see  pp.  Z"]  and  89).  For  Gray's  remarks  on  Mason's  Choruses  in 
Caractacus,  see  his  Works,  II,  317,  332  ff.,  350  ff.  Perhaps  the  best 
account  of  Mason's  life  and  works  is  given  in  Hartley  Coleridge's 
Northern   Worthies. 

115.    Pindar,  Olymp.,  ii,  159. 

120.  Orient  hues.     Mitford  compares  vSpenser  : 

"  With  much  more  orient  hue." 

An  Hymn  in  Honour  of  Beauty,  v,  79. 

also  Milton  : 

"  With  orient  colours  waving." 

Par.  Lost,  i,  546. 

We  might  add  also, 

"  His  orient  liquor  in  a  crystal  glass." 

Comus,  V.  65. 

"Orient  "in  these  passages  of  course  means  "bright,"  "lustrous," 
—  perhaps  because  the  most  beautiful  jewels  came  from  the  East. 
Milton  uses  "orient  "in  this  sense  at  least  nine  times  '\n  Paradise 
Lost  alone. 

121.  The  last  three  lines  are  interesting  as  a  description  of  Gray's 
own  character  and  poetical  aims.  Did  he  himself  feel  that  he  was 
the  only  poet  since  Dryden .'' 


NOTES   ON   THE  POEMS.  155 


X. 

ODE   ON   THE    PLEASURE   ARISING   FROM 
VICISSITUDE. 

This  poem,  in  its  present  unfinished  state,  was  found  among  Gray's 
papers  after  his  death.  He  seems  to  have  composed  the  fragment 
during  1754  and  1755.  Mason  first  published  it,  pp.  236  and  237  of 
his  Memoirs  of  Gray  (1775).  In  the  Appendix  to  that  work  Mason 
published  it  again,  filling  out  broken  lines  and  adding  stanzas  with 
his  own  pen.  The  poem  is  here  printed  as  Gray  left  it,  without  any 
of  Mason's  additions,  although  a  few  fragmentary  words  and  broken 
lines  remain,  which  are  not  included  here  at  all.  Mason  remarked 
{Poevis  of  Mr.  Gray,  1775,  p.  82):  "  I  have  heard  Mr,  Gray  say,  that 
M.  Gresset's  *  Epitre  a  ma  Soeur'  (see  his  works  in  the  Amsterdam 
edition,  174S,  p.  iSo)  gave  him  the  first  idea  of  this  Ode:  and  who- 
ever compares  it  with  the  French  Poem,  will  find  some  slight  traits 
of  resemblance,  but  chiefly  in  our  Author's  seventh  stanza."  The 
idea,  however,  is  so  common  that  the  likeness  to  Gresset  does  not 
seem  especially  remarkable.     See  below. 

In  Gray's  memorandum  book  for  the  year  1754,  Mason  found  the 
follo\\ing  rough  notes,  which  give  the  poet's  plan  for  this  Ode  : 
"  Contrast  between  the  winter  past  and  coming  spring.  —  Joy  owing 
to  that  vicissitude.  —  Many  who  never  feel  that  delight.  —  Sloth. 
—  Envy.  —  Ambition.  How  much  happier  the  rustic  who  feels  it, 
tho'  he  knows  not  how." 

3.  Vermeil-cheek.  Vermilion;  a  bright  red.  Cf.  Milton,  (7^w«j,  752. 

13.  These  four  lines  on  the  sky-lark  will  stand  comparison  mth 
Wordsworth's  and  Shelley's  poems  on  the  same  subject. 

29.  Gray's  fondness  for  abstractions  appears  again  in  the  fifth 
and  sixth  stanzas.  The  whole  poem  should  be  read  in  connection 
with  the  Ode  on  the  Spring ;  see  notes  on  that  poem. 

49-52.  These  lines  are  in  Gray's  best  vein,  and  exhibit  the  true 
Wordsworthian  attitude  toward  nature.  It  is  this  stanza  which 
Mason  said  was  most  similar  to  Gresset.  It  may  be  interesting  to 
quote  some  lines  from  Gresset's  Epitre  a  ?na  Sceur,  sur  ma  Con- 
valescence, CEuvres,  1777,  I,  136: 

"  O  jours  de  la  Convalescence ! 
Jours  d'une  pure  volupte  ! 
C'est  una  nouvelle  naissance, 
Un  rayon  d'immortalite. 


156 


NOTES    OX   THE   POEMS. 

Quel  feu!  tous  les  plaisirs  out  vole  dans  mon  ame; 

J'adore  avec  transport  le  celeste  Hambeau ; 

Tout  m'interesse,  tout  m'enflanie, 

Pour  moi  I'Univers  est  nouveau. 

Sans  doute  que  le  Dieu  qui  nous  rend  I'existence, 

A  I'heureuse  Convalescence 

Pour  de  nouveaux  plaisirs  donne  de  nouveaux  sens; 

A  ses  regards  impatiens 

Le  cahos  fuit ;  tout  nait,  la  lumiere  commence  ; 

Tout  brille  des  feux  du  printems ; 

Les  plus  simples  objets,  le  chant  d'une  Fauvette, 

Le  matin  d'un  beau  jour,  la  verdure  des  bois, 

La  fraicheur  d'une  violette ; 

Mille  spectacles,  qu'autrefois 

On  voyoit  avec  nonchalance, 

Transportent  aujourd'luii,  presentent  des  appas 

Inconnus  ^  I'indifference, 

Et  que  la  soule  ne  voit  pas." 

55.    Note  the  pronunciation,    crystalline,    found   also  in   Miltonj 
P.  L.,  iii,  482  ;  vi,  772  ;  and  vii,  271. 


XI. 

THE   BARD. 

Gray  began  to  write  this  ode  in  1754,  and  worked  at  it,  but  only 
occasionally,  until  1757,  when  he  finished  it.  We  learn  from  a  letter 
to  Mason,  1757  {Works,  II,  312),  that  the  following  incident  inspired 
Gray  to  finish  th.Q  Bard :  "Mr.  Parry  has  been  here  and  scratched 
out  such  ravishing  blind  harmony,  such  tunes  of  a  thousand  years 
old,  with  names  enough  to  choke  you,  as  have  set  all  this  learned 
body  a-dancing,  and  inspired  them  with  due  reverence  for  Odikle, 
whenever  it  shall  appear.  Mr.  Parry  .  .  .  has  put  Odikle  in  motion 
again."  He  then  encloses  the  conclusion  of  the  poem.  In  the 
same  year  (1757)  it  was  printed  as  "  Ode  II  "  along  with  the  Progress 
of  Poesy  on  Horace  Walpole's  press  at  Strawberry  Hill.  (See  Intro- 
ductory note  to  the  Progress  of  Poesy.)  Gray's  own  foot-notes,  added 
chiefly  in  the  1768  edition  of  his  poems,  are  necessary  to  a  correct 
understanding  of  this  ode. 


NOTES   ON   THE  POEMS. 


157 


In  Mason's  Notes  on  the  Bard  (p.  91  of  his  Poems  of  Gray,  1775), 
he  gives  "  the  original  argument  of  this  capital  Ode,  as  its  author 
had  set  it  down  on  one  of  the  pages  of  his  common-place  book." 
It  is  as  follows  :  "  The  army  of  Edward  I.  as  they  march  through  a 
deep  valley,  are  suddenly  stopped  by  the  appearance  of  a  venerable 
fif^ure  seated  on  the  summit  of  an  inaccessible  rock,  who,  with  a 
voice  more  than  human,  reproaches  the  King  with  all  the  misery 
and  desolation  which  he  had  brought  on  his  country;  foretells  the 
misfortunes  of  the  Norman  race,  and  with  prophetic  spirit  declares, 
that  all  his  cruelty  shall  never  extinguish  the  noble  ardour  of  poetic 
genius  in  this  island ;  and  that  men  shall  never  be  wanting  to  cele- 
brate true  virtue  and  valour  in  immortal  strains,  to  expose  vice  and 
infamous  pleasure,  and  boldly  censure  tyranny  and  oppression. 
His  song  ended,  he  precipitates  himself  from  the  mountain,  and  is 
swallowed  up  by  the  river  that  rolls  at  its  foot." 

The  popular  reception  of  the  Bard,  as  well  as  of  the  Progress  of 
Poesy,  was  not  altogether  gratifying.  See  Introduction,  part  iv,  also 
PP-  74-77.  87,  89,  and  Works,  II,  323,  331. 

Advertisevient.  The  tradition  that  Edward  I.  (reign  1272-1307) 
hanged  all  the  bards.  Gray  may  have  met  with  in  Carte's  History  of 
England,  Book  viii,  vol.  II,  p.  196.  This  second  volume  was  pub- 
lished in  1750,  and  Gray  did  not  begin  to  write  until  1754.  Carte 
says  :  "  The  only  set  of  men  among  the  Welsh,  that  had  reason  to 
complain  of  Edward's  severity,  were  the  bards  who  used  to  put 
those  of  the  ancient  Britons  in  mind  of  the  valiant  deeds  of  their 
ancestors :  he  ordered  them  all  to  be  hanged,  as  inciters  of  the 
people  to  sedition."  He  refers  as  'his  authority  to  a  seventeenth- 
century  work,  Sir  J.  Wynne's  History  of  the  Gwedir  Family.  The 
sp-called  "tradition,"  which  has  not  been  traced  to  any  earlier  source 
than  Wynne,  is  exploded  by  Thomas  Stephens  {Literature  of  the 
Kyjnry,  2d  ed.,  93  ff.),  who  remarks:  "It  is  probabie  that  the 
worthy  Baronet  was  led  to  form  this  conclusion  from  knowing  that 
Edward  issued  an  edict  against  the  bards."  This  edict,  however, 
Stephens  shows  to  have  been,  like  all  the  later  edicts,  directed  merely 
against  vagrant  minstrels  and  not  dissimilar  probably  to  those  regu- 
lations which  Ritson  gleefully  quoted  against  Bishop  Percy  as  to  the 
English  minstrels.  No  one  will  wish  to  contend  that  a  vagrant 
Welsh  harper  may  not  at  some  time  have  been  hanged  ;  but  there 
is  no  evidence  for  it,  still  less  for  a  general  massacre  of  bards. 
Henry  IV.'s  edict  was  to  all  intents  and  purposes  a  re-enactment  of 
that  of  Edward  I.     (See  note  to  Long  Story,  v.  51.) 


1^8  NOTES   ON   THE   POEMS, 

2.   Confusion.     Destruction. 
4.    King  Johti,  V,  i,  72. 

8.  Cambria.  An  old  Latinization  of  Welsh  Cymru,  the  land  of 
the  Kymry  (or  Welsh). 

9.  Gray's  quotation  in  the  note  is  from  Dryden's  Indian  Queen, 
iii,  I.     (Vol.  I,  p.  196,  ed.  1735.) 

11.  The  passage  from  Higden  in  Gray's  note  is  Polychronicon 
Ramilphi  Higden,  ed.  Lumby,  I,  418. 

12.  It  was  in  the  years  1282-S4  that  King  Edward  completely 
conquered  Wales. 

15-18.    These  lines  are  thoroughly  romantic  in  tone. 

18.  Haggard.  Gray  writing  to  Thomas  Wharton,  21  August 
J755  {Works,  II,  26S),  said:  "Though  haggard,  which  conveys  to 
you  the  idea  of  a  Witch,  is  indeed  only  a  metaphor  taken  from  an 
unreclaimed  Hawk,  which  is  called  a  haggard,  and  looks  wild  and 
farouche,  and  jealous  of  its  liberty."  See  also  note  on  "  hagged," 
Long  Story,  1 29. 

20.    Paradise  Lost,  \,  537. 

28.  High-born  Hoel.  The  son  of  Prince  Owain  Gwynedd,  of 
North  W^ales  (see  Introductory  Note  to  The  Triumphs  of  Owen). 
He  was  both  a  warrior  and  a  poet.  For  a  full  account  of  him, 
with  specimens  of  his  poetry  in  the  original  and  in  translation,  see 
Thomas  Stephens,  Literature  of  the  Kymry,  2d  ed.,  1876,  pp.  37  ff. 
Stephens  supposes  that  he  is  referred  to  in  the  line  translated  by 
Gray  in  Triumphs  of  Owen,  v.  20. 

29.  Cadwallo  and  Urien  were  Welsh  poets.  Nothing  is  extant 
of  their  works.     Evans,  Dissertatio  de  Bardis,  p.  78. 

33.  Modred.  Modred  or  Mordred  is  the  villain  of  the  Arthur 
story ;  but  no  person  of  this  name  is  known  as  a  bard.  Mitford's 
conjecture  that  Gray  altered  "  Myrddin  ab  Morvryn  "  for  the  sake 
of  euphony  is  not  probable. 

34.  Plinlimmon.     A  Welsh  mountain. 

35.  They  lie.     The  dead  bards. 
40.   fulius  Caesar,  ii,  I,  289,  290. 

44.  A  griesly  band.  Possibly  Gray  may  be  referring  to  the  Bard 
when  he  writes  to  Mason  in  1756  {Works,  II,  284):  "I  am  of  your 
opinion,  that  the  ghosts  will  spoil  the  picture,  unless  they  are  thrown 
at  a  huge  distance,  and  extremely  kept  down." 

48.  Gray's  note  refers  to  the  Fatal  Sisters. 

49.  At  this  point,  beginning  with  the  words  "  Weave  the  warp," 
the  spirits  of  the  dead  bards  alluded  to  in  the  last  stanza  join  in  the 


NOTES   ON   THE   POEMS.  159 

song  ;  this  chorus  is  continued  through  line  100,  where  the  spirits 
vanish  and  the  one  Singer  continues  in  solitude.  This  conception 
of  Gray's  is  as  dramatic  as  it  is  poetical. 

49.  Warp  and  woof.  The  warp  means  the  threads  extended 
lengthwise  in  the  loom  in  weaving,  and  the  woof  means  the  threads 
that  cross  the  warp. 

51.  Verge.  Literally,  the  border.  The  passage  means  simply: 
"  Let  there  be  plenty  of  room  to  get  everything  in." 

54.  Severn.     The  river. 

55.  Berkley's  roofs.  Berkeley  castle,  which  stands  S.-E.  of  the 
town  of  Berkeley.  It  is  said  to  have  been  built  soon  after  the 
Norman  conquest,  and  is  in  good  condition  to-day. 

57.    Mitford  quotes  Henry  VL,  pt.  Ill,  i,  4,  in: 

"  She-wolf  of  France,  but  worse  than  wolves  of  France." 

61.    Amazement.     Confusion,  as  commonly  in  Shakspere. 

71,  In  his  note  Gray  refers  to  Froissart.  \Vriting  to  Wharton, 
23  Jan.  1760  (  Works,  III,  24),  he  says  :  "■Froissard  is  a  favourite  book 
of  mine  (though  I  have  not  attentively  read  him,  but  only  dipp'd 
here  and  there),"  and  continues  with  further  remarks  about  him.  — 
Fair  laughs,  etc.  Cf.  Henry  IV. 's  description  of  the  levity  of  his 
predecessor,  Richard  II.,  in  Henry  IV.,  pt.  I,  iii,  2,  60  ff. 

91.  Above,  below.  In  the  loom.  The  two  roses  were  united 
by  the  marriage  of  Henry  VII.  (Lancaster)  and  Elizabeth  (York). 
Cf.  Ode  for  Music. 

99.  Half  of  thy  heart.  Eleanor,  wife  of  Edward  I.,  died  in 
1290.  The  "heroic  proof  of  her  affection"  alludes  to  the  story  of 
her  husband's  wound  from  a  poisoned  dagger,  which  she  cured  by 
sucking  out  the  venom. 

loi.  Stay,  oh  stay!  The  bard  calls  on  the  vanishing  spirits  of 
his  brother  poets. 

102.  In  the  fragment  sent  to  Wharton,  21  August  1755  {Works, 
II,  270),  this  line  stood  :  "  Leave  your  despairing  Caradoc  to  mourn  !  " 
Afterwards,  in  a  letter  to  Walpole,  11  July  1757  {Works,  II,  319), 
Gray  said,  "  Caradoc  I  have  private  reasons  against  ;  and  besides  it 
is  in  reality  Caradoc,  and  will  not  stand  in  the  verse."  Cf.  the 
fragment  on   Caradoc,  p.  53. 

109.  In  his  Remarks  on  the  Poems  of  Lydgate  {Works,  I,  389), 
Gray  quotes  Lydgate's  Fall  of  Princes,  viii,  24,  as  evidence  that  the 
"notion  [was]  then  \i.e.  in  the  15th  century]  current  in  Britain,  that 
King  Arthur  was  not  dead,  but  translated  to  Fairy-Land,  and  should 


l6o  NOTES   ON   THE   POEMS. 

come  again  to  restore  the  Round  Table."  In  a  note  he  adds :  "  Peter 
of  Blois,  who  lived  in  1170,  says  ironically,  in  his  epistles,  57: 

*  Quibus  si  credideris, 
Expectare  poteris 
Arturum  cum  Britonibus.'" 

These  passages  are  interesting  as  illustrative  of  the  range  and 
minuteness  of  Gray's  studies  in  what  may  be  called  Romantic 
material.  Records  of  this  pathetic  confidence  in  Arthur's  return 
which  made  "  the  credulity  of  the  Britons  "  a  by-word  for  centuries 
must  have  come  under  Gray's  eye  in  many  places  :  for  example,  in 
the  Polychronicon  of  Ranulphus  de  Iligden  ad  atm.  1177  (ed.  Lumby, 
VIII,  60),  a  work  which  Gray  quotes  in  his  note  to  v.  11  of  this 
very  poem. 

1 10.  The  prophecies  of  Merlin  (Merddin)  and  Taliesin  here  referred 
to  have  been  proved  by  Thomas  Stephens  not  to  be  earlier  than 
the  1 2th  century  and  hence  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  those  bards, 
whose  date  is  in  the  6th  century.  See  his  Literature  of  the  Kymry, 
2d  ed.,  ch.  ii,  sect.  4,  pp.  198  ff.:  "Poems  fictitiously  ascribed  to 
Merddin,  Taliesin,  Aneurin,"  etc. 

Ill  ff.  Cf.  Sir  Richard  Baker  on  the  "state"  of  Queen  Elizabeth 
{Chronicle  of  the  Ki?tgs  of  England,  ed.  of  16S4,  p.  400)  :  "Never 
Prince  kept  greater  State  with  less  stateliness :  Her  Pensioners  and 
Guard  were  always  the  tallest  and  goodliest  Gentlemen  and  Yeomen 
of  the  Kingdom :  Her  Maids  of  Honor  and  other  Women  about 
her,  the  fairest  and  most  beautiful  Ladies  of  the  Realm  ;  and  yet 
her  self  a  Diana  amongst  the  Nymphs." 

112.    Starry    fronts.      Mitford    compares    Milton,    The    Passion, 

stanza  iii : 

"  His  starry  front  low-roofed  beneath  the  skies." 

115.  A  Form  divine.  This  language  toward  Elizabeth  sounds 
more  like  Spenser  than  Gray. 

116.  Briton-Line.  The  Welsh  were  the  original  Britons;  so  the 
Bard  says  that  in  the  person  of  Elizabeth,  —  who  had  Welsh  blood 
in  her  veins,  Henry  VII.  being  the  grandson  of  a  Welsh  chief, — 
the  Welsh  once  more  will  rule  England. 

121.  A  few  of  the  poems  of  Taliesin  have  been  preserved,  but 
most  of  those  attributed  to  him  in  Gray's  time  are  not  earlier  than 
the  I2th  century.  See  note  on  v.  no.  Gray  had  his  doubts  as  to 
the  authenticity  of  Taliesin's  poems.  See  his  note  to  the  Observa- 
tions on  the  Pseudo-Rhythrnus  {Works,  I,  365). 


NOTES   ON   THE   POEMS.  i6i 

126.    Spenser,  Fairy  Queen,  first  stanza  of  dedication. 

128.  Buskin'd.  The  buskin  was  the  poetical  name  for  Tragedy. 
There  is  a  kind  of  "  Progress  of  Poesy  "  in  this  stanza. 

135.    Fond.     Foolish. 

140.  The  different  doom.  The  different  judgment  on  you,  King 
Edward,  the  destruction  of  your  house,  and  on  me,  my  final  triumph 
in  the  house  of  Tudor  and  the  Elizabethan  poets. 


XII. 

SKETCH    OF    Ills    OWN    CHARACTER.- 

This  was  first  printed  by  Mason,  in  his  Memoirs  of  Gray  (1775), 
p.  264.  Mason  especially  approved  of  the  theistic  sentiment  Gray 
expressed,  printing  line  4  in  capitals. 

3.  Could  love,  and  could  hate.  Although  Gray  was  never 
demonstrative,  his  likes  and  dislikes  were  remarkably  strong. 

4.  In  Swift's  great  Argjcnient  Against  Abolishing  Christianity,  we 
find  much  the  same  sarcastic  tone  taken  toward  affected  atheism. 

6.  Charles  Townshend  was  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  (1767). 
He  was  as  famous  for  wit  and  oratory  as  for  political  versatility.  — 
Squire.  Dr.  Samuel  Squire,  Fellow  of  St.  John's  College,  Cam- 
bridge. He  was  Rector  of  St.  Anne's,  Soho,  afterwards  Dean  of 
Bristol,  and  then  Bishop  of  St.  David's  in  1761 ;  he  died  7  May 
1766.     Gray  mentions  him  in  a  letter  to  Mason  (see  p.  76). 


XIII. 
SONG. 


Gray  wrote  these  lines  in  October,  1761,  to  an  old  air,  at  the 
request  of  his  friend  Miss  Speed,  the  heroine  of  A  Long  Story. 
Horace  Walpole,  writing  to  the  Countess  of  Aylesbury,  28  November 
1761,  says,  "  You  will  like  better  to  see  some  words  which  Mr.  Gray 
has  writ,  at  Miss  Speed's  request,  to  an  old  air  of  Geminiani  :  the 
thought  is  from  the  French."  Then  follows  the  Song.  {Works, 
ed.  1798,  V,  561.) 


1 62  NOTES   ON  THE   POEMS. 

I.    Thyrsis.     The  conventional  name  for  a  pastoral  lover. 
9.    Gales.     A  very  favorite  word  with  Gray. 


XIV. 

THE   FATAL   SISTERS. 

This  ode  was  written  in  1761,  and  first  published  in  the  1768 
edition  of  Gray's  poems.  It  is  a  free  rendering  of  a  Latin  transla- 
tion from  the  Old  Norse.  (See  Appendix  to  I)itroductio7i,  on  Gray''s 
Knowledge  of  Norse.)  The  chief  interest  of  Gray's  version  is  the  fact 
that  it  shows  his  love  and  eager  study  of  strictly  Romantic  themes. 

Torfaeus.     For  particulars,  see  Appendix. 

Bartholinus.  Thomas  Bartholin,  the  younger  (1659-1690).  For 
particulars  as  to  his  book  on  Northern  antiquities,  and  as  to  Gray's 
use  of  it,  see  Appendix. 

The  Old  Norse  words  quoted  by  Gray  form  a  part  of  the  opening 
sentence  of  the  song  : 

"  Vi'tt  er  orpit  fyr  val-falli 
rifs  rei"Si-sky." 

"The  pendent  cloud  of  loom  \i.e.  the  fateful  web  which  the  val- 
kyrjur  are  weaving]  is  stretched  out  wide  before  the  slaughter." 

Gray  translated  from  the  Latin  version  in  Bartholin,  which  is 
repeated  in  Torfaeus.  No  doubt  he  referred  to  the  original,  which 
they  also  print. 

This  original  is  to  be  found  in  the  Icelandic  Njdlssaga  (the  Saga 
of  Njall  or  Niel),  cap.  157  {Islendinga  Sogur,  Copenhagen,  1875, 
III,  898-901).  The  accompanying  prose  furnishes  an  introduction 
and  a  conclusion,  which  are  put  together  by  Gray  in  his  Preface. 
The  text  of  the  song  (without  the  prose)  is  edited,  with  an  English 
prose  translation,  in  Vigfusson  and  Powell,  Corpus  Poetictan  Boreale, 
Oxford,  1883,  I,  281-283.  The  poem  is  much  older  than  the  Saga 
which  has  preserved  it,  and  must,  indeed,  be  nearly  contemporary 
with  the  event  which  it  celebrates  —  the  Battle  of  Clontarf.  fought 
April  23  (Good  Friday) — not  Christmas,  as  Gray  has  it, —  1014.^  It 
is  one  of  the  most  powerful  of  the  Old  Norse  poems.     The  metre 

1  See  Konrad  Maurer,  Bekehriing  des  norwegischcn  Stammes,  I,  549  ff. 


NOTES   ON   THE   POEMS. 


163 


and  style  are  of  course  entirely  different  from  the  metre  and  style 
of  Gray's  paraphrase.  The  Latin  version  is  reprinted,  not  because 
it  gives  a  fair  idea  of  the  original,  but  because  it  is  essential  for 
comparison  with  Gray's  Ode. 

Bartholin,  De  Caiisis  cofttemptae  a  Danis  adhuc  Gentilibus  Mortis, 
1689,  pp.  618-624. 


Late  diffunditur 
ante  stragem  futuram 
sagittarum  nubes, 
depluit  sangvis, 
jam  hastis  applicatur 
cineracea 
tela  virorum, 
qvam  amicae,  texunt 
rubro  subtegmine, 
Randveri  mortis. 

Texitur  haec  tela 
intestinis  humanis, 
staminiqve  stricte  alligantur 
capita  humana ; 
sunt  sangvine  roratae 
hastae,  pro  insilibus : 
textoria  instrumenta,  ferrea: 
ac  sagittae  pro  radiis  : 
densabimus  gladiis 
banc  victoriae  telam. 

Prodeunt  ad  texendum  Hilda 
et  Hiorthrimula, 
Sangrida  et  Svipula, 
cum  strictis  gladiis : 
hastile  frangetur, 
scutum  diffindetur, 
ensisqve 
clypeo  illidetur. 

Texamus,  texamus 

telam  Darradi. 

Hunc  {gladium)  rex  juvenis 

pnus  possidebat : 

Prodeamus 

et  cohortes  intremus, 

ubi  nostri  amici 

armis  dimicant. 


Texamus,  texamus 
telam  Darradi, 
et  Regi 

deinde  adhaereamus : 
ibi  videbant 
sangvine  rorata  scuta 
Gunna  et  Gondula, 
qvae  regem  tutabantur. 

Texamus,  texamus 
telam  Darradi, 
ubi  arma  concrepant 
bellacium  virorum, 
non  sinamus  eum 
vita  privari, 
habent  Valkyriae 
caedis  potestatem. 

Illi  populi 
terras  regent, 
qvi  deserta  promontoria 
antea  incolebant. 
dico  potenti  regi 
mortem  imminere, 
jam  sagittis 
occubuit  Comes. 

Et  Hibernis 

dolor  accidet, 

qvi  nunqvam 

apud  viros  delebitur. 

jam  tela  texta  est, 

campus  vero  {sangvine)  roratus, 

terras  percurret 

conflictus  militum. 

Nunc  horrendum  est 
circumspicere, 


164 


NOTES   ON   THE   POEMS. 


cum  sangvinea  nubes 
per  aera  volitet. 
tingetur  aer 
sangvine  virorum, 
antequam  vaticinia  nostra 
omnia  corruant. 

Bene  canimus 
de  rege  juvene 
victoriae  carmina  multa, 


bene  sit  nobis  canentibus  I 

Discat  autem  ille 

qvi  auscultat 

bellica  carmina  multa, 

et  viris  referat. 

Eqvitemus  in  eqvis 
qvoniam  efferimus 
strictos  gladios, 
ex  hoc  loco. 


Advertisement.  The  "  Friend "  Gray  mentions  was  Thomas 
Warton  (172S-1790).  Gray  had  planned  to  write  a  History  of 
English  Poetry,  but  when  he  heard  that  Thomas  Warton  was 
engaged  in  that  work,  he  gave  up  the  idea,  and  handed  over  his 
general  scheme  to  Warton,  who  published  years  afterward  the 
History,  (ist  vol.  1774,  2d  vol.  1778,  3d  vol.  1 781.)  Gray's  scheme 
is  contained  in  his  letter  to  ^Varton,  15  April  1770  {Works,  III, 
364).  Parts  of  the  material  that  Gray  had  collected  may  be  found 
in  his  Works,  vol.  I.  See  also  a  letter  from  Horace  Walpole  to 
Montagu,    5    May    1761    (Walpole's    Letters,  ed.  Cunningham,    HI, 

399)- 

Preface.  Mason,  in  his  1775  edition  of  Gray's  Poems,  p.  100, 
quotes  Gray's  MS.  note  about  the  conversion  of  the  people  of  the 
Orkney  islands  :  "  The  people  of  the  Orkney  islands  were  Christians, 
yet  did  not  become  so  till  after  A.D.  966,  probably  it  happened  in 
995  ;  but  though  they,  and  the  other  Gothic  nations,  no  longer 
worshiped  their  old  divinities,  yet  they  never  doubted  of  their 
existence,  or  forgot  their  ancient  mythology,  as  appears  from  the 
history  of  Olaus  Tryggueson." 

King  Olave  Tryggvason  is  said  to  have  forced  Sigurd,  Earl  of  the 
Orkneys,  to  accept  baptism  in  995,  but  Konrad  Maurer  {Be/cehrutig 
des  fiorwegischen  Stammes,  I,  339)  suggests  that  the  nearness  of 
Scotland  and  Ireland,  which  were  Christian,  must  have  previously 
caused  the  conversion  of  a  large  portion  of  the  islanders.  The 
"  history  of  Olaf  Tryggvason  "  to  which  Gray  refers  was  accessible 
to  him  in  Latin  in  the  works  of  Torfaeus. 

Sictryg,  better  Sigtrygg  (Old  Norse  Sigtryggr).  Sigtrygg  was 
King  of  Dublin,  Brian  was  King  of  Ireland.  Brian  was  Sigtrygg's 
step-father  (this  is  no  doubt  what  Gray  means  by  father-in-law). 
Both  Brian  and  Sigtrygg  fell  in  the  battle. 

I.  The  valkyrjur.  The  information  in  Gray's  note  is  derived 
from  Bartholin,  bk.  ii,  chaps,  ir  and  12.     The  account  given  of  the 


NOTES   ON   THE   POEMS.  165 

Valkyrjur  (Old  Norse  plural;  singular  Valkyrja)  and  of  Valhalla 
(Old  Norse  VahhiiU)  accurately  represents  the  belief  that  obtained 
among  the  vikings  at  the  time  when  this  poem  was  composed,  but 
must  be  regarded  as  a  special  Scandinavian  development,  forming 
itself  gradually  among  the  warrior  class  in  what  is  known  as  the 
"viking  age"  (A.D.  750-1050  roughly),  and  not  as  a  general  Germanic 
creed  (Gray's  "Gothic"  in  this  connection  doubtless  =  Germanic, 
Teutonic),  nor  even  as  a  creed  ever  accepted  by  the  common  people 
in  Scandinavia.  The  student  who  wishes  an  accurate  idea  of  these 
matters  should  not  trust  the  popular  handbooks  of  mythology, 
which  seldom  take  into  account  the  results  of  recent  scholarship, 
and,  indeed,  show  little  advance  beyond  the  authorities  which  were 
accessible  to  Gray.  He  may  consult  for  the  whole  subject  Mogk's 
article  Deutsche  Mythologie  in  Paul's  Grutidriss  der  germanischen 
Philologie,  vol.  II,  or  E.  H.  Meyer's  Deutsche  Mythologie  (Berlin, 
1S91);  for  the  Valkyrjur,  W.  Golther's  Der  Vaikyrjeufnythiis,  in  the 
Abliandlungen  of  the  Bavarian  Academy,  I.  CI.,  XVIII,  ii,  401  ff . ; 
Schullerus,  Ziir  Kritik  des  altnordischeii  Valhqllglaiibetis,  in  Paul 
and  Braune's  Beitrdge,  XII,  221  ff.  "Valkalla"  in  Gray's  note  is 
of  course  a  mere  misprint  for  "Valhalla." 

3.  Paradise  Regained,  iii,  323,  324.     The  original  has  "showers." 

4.  Julius  Caesar,  ii,  2,  22. 

8.  Randver's  bane.  Gray  here  follows  Bartholin's  Latin,  which 
misrepresents  the  original.  The  Icelandic  has  "  the  friends  of  the 
slayer  of  Randverr,"  i.e.,  "the  friends  of  Odin,"  i.e.,  "the  valkyrjur," 
—  a  typical  skaldic  phrase.     (So  Vigfusson,  doubtless  correctly.) 

16.  There  is  something  in  the  rhythm  of  this  line  that  recalls  the 
witches  in  Macbeth,  iv,  I,  32  :    "  Make  the  gruel  thick  and  slab." 

17-18.  Bartholin's  Latin  has  as  the  names  of  the  valkyrjur  in 
these  two  lines  Hilda,  Hiorthrimtila,  Sangrida,  Svipula  (in  the 
original  :  Hildr,  Hj^r\>rimul,  Sa?igri'^r,  Svipul),  and  in  v.  31  Gunna, 
Gondula  (in  the  original :  Gunnr,  Gq^Jidul).  Gray  found  the  names 
Mista  and  Geira  in  Bartholin's  translation  (p.  554)  of  a  stanza  in 
another  poem  of  the  Poetic  Edda  (the  Grimnismdl),  where  they 
occur  in  a  long  list  of  names  of  valkyrjur.  The  Old  Norse  forms 
in  Bartholin's  text  are  Mist  and  Geira.  The  latter  is  a  false  form, 
the  correct  reading  being  probably  Geirqfiul. 

24.    Hauberk.     Well  explained  in  Gray's  note  to  the  Bard,  v.  5. 

32.  According  to  Vigfusson  the  young  king  is  Sigtrygg.  Cf. 
v.  56. 

37.    The  Northmen. 


i66 


NOTES   ON   THE   POEMS. 


41.    The  Earl.     Probably   vSigurd,  though  Vigfiisson  takes  it  as 
referring  to  the  son  of  King  Brian. 
56.    Younger  King.     See  v.  32. 


XV. 

THE    DESCENT    OF   ODIN. 

This  Ode  was  written  in  1761,  and  first  published  in  the  1768 
edition  of  Gray's  poems.  Like  the  preceding,  it  is  a  free  rendering 
of  the  Latin.  Probably  Gray  was  first  inspired  to  write  this  by 
reading  Mallet's  Monutnents  de  la  niythologie  et  de  la  poesie  des  Celtes, 
et  particulierenient  des  anciens  Scandmaves  (1756).  Mallet  alluded 
to  this  Ode  in  the  first  volume  of  his  Introdtutioii  a  riiistoire  de 
Datineniarc  (1755),  and  in  the  second  volume,  the  title  of  which  is 
quoted  above.  Mallet  gave  a  French  version  in  prose,  of  a  portion 
of  this  very  Ode. 

The  Icelandic  line  should  read  "  Upp  reis  O^Sinn  aldinn  gautr " 
("  Up  rose  Odin,  the  old  Creator").  Gray  followed  Bartholin's  text 
(p.  632). 

Bartholin,  De  Causis  contemptae  a  Danis  adhuc  Getttilibus  Mortis^ 
1689,  pp.  632-640. 


Surgebat  Odinus 

virorum  summus, 

et  Sleipnerum 

ephippio  stravit, 

eqvitabat  deorsum 

Niflhelam  versus, 

obvium  habuit  catellum 

ab  Helae  habitaculis  venientem. 

Huic  sangvine  aspersa  erant 

pectus  anterius, 

rictus  mordendi  avidus, 

et  maxillarum  infima; 

allatrabat  ille, 

et  rictum  diduxit 

magiae  patri, 

et  diu  latrabat. 


Eqvitavit  Odinus, 
terra  subtus  tremuit, 
donee  ad  altum  veniret 
Helae  habitaculum. 
turn  eqvitavit  Odinus 
ad  orientale  ostii  latus, 
ubi  fatidicae 
tumulum  esse  novit. 

Sapienti  carmina 

mortuos  excitantia  cecinit, 

boream  inspexit, 

literas  {tumtilo)  imposuit, 

sermones  proferre  coepit, 

responsa  poposcit, 

donee  in  vita  surgeret 

et  mortuorum  sermonem  proferret. 


NOTES   ON  THE   POEMS. 


\(i1 


Qvisnam  hominum 
niihi  ignotorum, 
mihi  facere  praesumit 
tristem  animum? 
nive  eram 
et  nimbo  aspersa, 
pluviaque  rorata, 
mortua  diu  jacui. 

Viator  nominor, 

Bellatoris  filius  sum, 

enarra  mihi  qvae  apud    Plelam  ge- 

runtur, 
ego  tibi.  qvae  in  mundo. 
Cuinam  sedes 
auro  stratae  sunt  ? 
lecti  pulchri 
auro  ornati. 

Hie  Baldero  medo 
paratus  extat, 
purus  potus, 
scuto  superinjecto; 
divina  vero  suboles 
dolore  afficietur. 
invita  haec  dixi, 
jamqve  silebo. 

Noli  fatidica  tacere, 
te  interrogare  volo 
donee  omnia  novero. 
adhuc  scire  volo, 
qvisnam  Baldero 
necem  inferet, 
ac  Odini  filium 
vita  privabit? 

Hodus  excelsum  fert 

honoratum    fratrem    {sc.   se    ifsum) 

illuc. 
is  Baldero 
necem  inferet. 
et  Odini  filium 
vita  privabit. 
invita  haec  dixi 
jamqve  tacebo. 


Noli  tacere  fatidica, 
adhuc  te  interrogare  volo 
donee  omnia  novero, 
adhuc  scire  volo 
qvisnam  Hodo 
odium  rependet? 
aut  Balderi  interfectorem, 
occidendo,  rogo  adaptet. 

Rinda  filium  pariet 

in  habitaculis  occidentalibus, 

hie  Odini  filius, 

unam  noctem  natus,  armis  uteturj 

manum  non  lavabit, 

nee  caput  pectet, 

anteqvam  rogo  imponat 

Balderi  inimicum. 

invita  haec  dixi, 

jamqve  tacebo. 

Noli  tacere  fatidica, 

adhuc  te  interrogare  volo, 

qvaenam  sunt  virgines 

qvae  prae  cogitationibus  lachryman- 

tur, 
et  in  coelum  jaciunt 
cervicum  pepla  ? 
hoc  solum  mihi  dicas, 
nam  prius  non  dormies. 

Non  tu  viator  es, 
ut  antea  credidi ; 
sed  potius  Odinus, 
virorum  summus. 
Tu  non  es  fatidica, 
nee  sapiens  foemina, 
sed  potius  trium 
gigantum  mater. 

Eqvita  domum  Odine, 
ac  in  his  glonare, 
nemo  tali  modo  veniet 
ad  sciscitandum, 
vsqve  dum  Lokus 
vinculis  solvatur : 
et  Deorum  crepusculum 
dissolventes  aderint. 


1 68  NOTES   ON   THE   POEMS. 

The  original  is  known  as  Vegtaniskvt^a  (^le..  The  Song  of  Veg- 
tamr  ^)  or  as  Baldrs  Draiimar  {Buldr''s  Drea?ns).  It  is  found  in  the 
collection  of  Old  Norse  poetry  known  as  the  Elder  or  Poetic  Edda. 
This  collection  was  at  one  time  thought  to  be  the  work  of  Saemund 
the  Wise  (1056-1133).  The  Poetic  Edda  was  discovered  in  Iceland 
in  1643  and  until  a  comparatively  recent  time  very  extravagani 
notions  of  its  age  (which  of  course  Gray  shared)  were  current 
amongst  scholars.  In  anything  like  their  present  form  none  of 
these  poems  antedate  the  loth  century  and  some  of  them  are  much 
later.  The  present  poem  is  one  of  the  later  songs  and  is  perhaps 
not  much  older  than  the  Royal  MS.  of  the  Edda  (end  of  I3ih 
century).  The  Old  Norse  text  may  be  found  in  any  edition  of  the 
Poetic  Edda.  Vigfusson's  text  {Corpus  Poeticufu  Boreale,  I,  181-183) 
is  accompanied  by  an  English  prose  translation. 

The  first  stanza,  which  Gray  has  omitted  (omitted  also  in  Bar- 
tholin), says  that  "all  the  gods  and  goddesses  were  in  council  to 
learn  why  Baldr's  dreams  were  so  threatening."  Baldr,  the  god  of 
light,  was  the  favorite  son  of  Odin  and  beloved  of  all  the  gods. 
Distressed  by  fears  of  Baldr's  death,  Odin  determ.ines  to  learn  the 
truth  from  a  seeress,  long  dead,  and  for  that  purpose  he  visits  the 
underground  realm  of  Hel,  goddess  of  Hades. 

4,  Gray's  note  on  Niflheimr  comes  from  Bartholin,  pp.  387,  5S5. 
and  is  based  on  a  passage  in  the  Prose  Edda.  It  represents,  like  tht 
Valhalla  creed,  a  late  stage  of  Viking  belief.  The  Old  Norse  form 
of  the  goddess's  name  is  Hel.  Hell  in  this  note  should  be  under- 
stood as  =  Hades,  not  as  =  a  place  of  torment. 

17.    The  line  is  from  Milton's  H Allegro,  59. 

22.  Thrice  he  traced  the  runic  rhyme.  Runic  is  a  term  applied 
to  alphabets  used  by  the  Scandinavians  and  other  Germanic  races 
before  the  adoption  of  the  Roman  letters.  Magic  power  was  often 
attributed  to  runes.  In  an  interpolation  in  the  original  (which 
stood  in  Bartholin's  text),  Odin  is  apparently  represented  as  "laying 
runes"  on  the  tomb  (though  the  word  runes  is  not  used),  but  the 
text  is  quite  as  vague  as  Gray's  "traced."  Bartholin  translates 
"Literas  (tumulo)  imposuit,"  which  Gray  seems  to  have  taken  as 
meaning  that  spells  were  written  on  the  tomb  by  Odin.  Gray's 
information  about  the  magic  powers  of  runes  was  derived  from 
Bartholin,  pp.  641  ff. 

24.  verse  that  wakes  the  dead.  "The  original  word  is  Valgalldr 
[read   valgaldr"] ;    from    Valr,    mortuus.  and    Galldr    [read    galdr\ 

1  Name  assumed  by  Odin. 


NOTES   ON  THE   POEMS.  169 

incantatio."  Gray  (as  extracted  by  Mason  from  the  MS.).  Gray's 
note  is  from  Bartholin,  p.  640.     The  etymology  is  correct. 

27  ff.  The  seeress'  unwillingness  to  be  disturbed  recalls  the 
words  of  Samuel  when  evoked  by  the  Witch  of  Endor  :  "Why  hast 
thou  disquieted  me  to  bring  me  up?"  i  Satnuel,  xxviii,  15.  The 
idea  is  familiar  to  all  nations. 

37.  A  Traveller.  In  the  original,  Odin  conceals  his  identity  by 
assuming  the  name  Vegtavir  (hence  the  title  of  the  poem  Vegtams- 
kvi'Sa),  which  means  lVa}iderer. 

44.  The  pure  beverage  of  the  bee.  Mead,  a  favorite  old 
Germanic  drink  made  from  honey.  The  heroes  drink  mead  in 
Valhalla.  See  Gray's  Preface-  to  The  Fatal  Sisters,  and  the  note. 
The  periphrasis  is  Gray's  own. 

86.  Odin  recognizes  the  seeress  as  the  goddess  Hel  herself.  But 
this  interpretation  is  doubtful.  In  any  case,  he  taunts  her  with 
being  an  uncanny,  diabolic  creature:  "mother  of  three  giants,"  as 
the  original  has  it. 

go.  In  Gray's  note  Lok  should  be  Loki.  The  phrase  Twilight  of 
the  Gods  (Gotterdammerung)  is  an  old  misunderstanding  of  the  Old 
Norse  Ragnarq^k,  which  =  merely  The  Fates  of  the  Gods.  Gray 
refers  his  readers  to  Mallet  as  an  easily  accessible  source  of  informa- 
tion, but  he  had  himself  ^o  doubt  used  Bartholin,  pp.  587  ff.,  where 
a  part  of  the  Vqluspd  (The  Sibyl's  Soothsaying),  the  first  poem  in 
the  Poetic  Edda  and  our  chief  authority  for  this  belief,  is  quoted  and 
translated  :  see  especially  p.  595. 

51.  In  Mason's  Poems  of  Gray  (1775),  p.  103,  he  quotes  Gray's 
MS.  note:  "Women  were  looked  upon  by  the  Gothic  nations  as 
having  a  peculiar  insight  into  futurity;  and  some  there  were  that 
made  profession  of  magic  arts  and  divination.  These  travelled 
round  the  country,  and  were  received  in  every  house  with  great 
respect  and  honour.  Such  a  woman  bore  the  name  of  Volva 
Seidkona  or  Spakona.  The  dress  of  Thorbiorga,  one  of  these 
prophetesses,  is  described  at  large  in  Eirik's  Rauda  Sogu  (apud 
Bartholin,  lib.  i,  cap.  iv,  p.  688).  She  had  on  a  blue  vest  spangled 
all  over  with  stones,  a  necklace  of  glass  beads,  and  a  cap  made  of 
the  skin  of  a  black  lamb  lined  with  white  cat-skin.  She  leaned  on  a 
staff  adorned  with  brass,  with  a  round  head  set  with  stones ;  and 
was  girt  with  a  Hunlandish  belt,  at  which  hung  her  pouch  full  of 
magical  instruments.  Her  buskins  were  of  rough  calf-skin,  bound 
on  with  thongs  studded  with  knobs  of  brass,  and  her  gloves  of 
white  cat-skin,  the  fur  turned  inwards,  &c.     They  were  also  called 


170 


NOTES   ON  THE  POEMS. 


Fiolkyngi,  or  Fiol-kunnug,  i.e.,  Multi-scia ;  and  Visinda-kona,  i.e., 
Oraculorum  Mulier,  N^orfiir ;  i.e.,  Parcae."  This  note  is  almost 
wholly  from  Bartholin  (see  p.  xli,  above).  A  few  corrections  are 
necessary.  Read  v^lva,  sei^kona,  spdkona,  Thorbjqrg  (for  Thorbio7-ga, 
which  is  Bartholin's  Latinized  form),  Eiriks  Saga  Rau^a  {i.e.,  the 
Saga  of  Eric  the  Red,  famous  as  containing  an  account  of  Leif 
Eiriksson's  Vinland  voyage).  The  passage  referred  to  by  Gray  is 
one  of  capital  importance.  It  is  in  ch.  3,  and  has  been  printed, 
with  notes,  by  Vigfusson  and  Powell  in  their  Icelandic  Reader 
(p.  126).  At  the  end  of  the  note,  rQ2id  ^'ql-kunnig  iox  Jiol-kufinug. 
Fyqlkyngi,  which  Gray  seems  to  have  got  from  a  false  reading  in 
Bartholin's  extract  from  Eric  the  Red's  Saga,  is  a  noun,  and  means 
the  prophetic  art.  The  Nornir  or  Norns  were  really  the  Norse  Fates. 
They  are,  however,  confounded  with  ordinary  seeresses  in  a  story 
quoted  by  Bartholin,  p.  6S5  (cf.  p.  612). 

55.  Hoder.  Old  Norse  Hcj'Sr.  The  unwitting  cause  of  Baldr's 
death.  The  whole  story  is  told  in  the  Prose  Edda  (Gylfagi)ining, 
ch.  49  ff.),  and  has  been  often  translated.  See  Matthew  Arnold's 
Balder  Dead.  Cf.  Gayley,  Classic  Myths  in  Efiglish  Literature, 
1893,  pp.  380  ff.,  where  the  Edda  story  is  told.  For  a  good  brief 
account  of  the  Eddas,  see  article  Edda,  in  Johnson's  Universal 
Cyclopaedia,  revised  edition. 


XVI. 

THE   TRIUMPHS    OF   OWEN. 

Gray  wrote  this  ode  probably  in  the  year  1764,  immediately  after 
the  publication  of  the  Rev.  Evan  Evans's  Specime^is  of  the  Antient 
Welsh  Bards  (see  Introduction,  part  iv).  This  was  a  collection  of 
Welsh  poems  with  English  prose  translations,  followed  by  a  Disser- 
tatio  de  Bardis ;  Gray  turned  one  of  the  pieces  into  rime.  The 
poem  was  first  published  in  the  1768  edition. 

The  prose  version  which  Gray  versified  runs  as  follows  :^  "A 
Panegyric  upon  Owain  Gwynedd,  Prince  of  North  Wales,  by  Gwalch- 
mai,  the  son  of  Melir,  in  the  Year  11 57. 

1  A  revision  of  Evans's  translation  may  be  found  in  The  Literary  Remains 
of  the  Rev.  Thomas  Price,  1854,  I,  195. 


NOTES   ON   THE   POEMS. 


171 


"  I  will  extol  the  generous  hero,  descended  from  the  race  of 
Roderic,  the  bulwark  of  his  country,  a  prince  eminent  for  his  good 
qualities,  the  glory  of  Britain,  Owain  the  brave  and  expert  in  arms, 
a  prince  that  neither  hoardeth  nor  coveteth  riches.  —  Three  fleets 
arrived,  vessels  of  the  main,  three  powerful  fleets  of  the  first  rate, 
furiously  to  attack  him  on  a  sudden.  One  from  Iwerddon,  the 
other  full  of  well-armed  Lochlynians,  making  a  grand  appearance 
on  the  floods,  the  third  from  the  transmarine  Xormans,  which  was 
attended  with  an  immense,  though  successless  toil. 

"  The  Dragon  of  Mona's  sons  were  so  brave  in  action,  that  there 
was  a  great  tumult  on  their  furious  attack,  and  before  the  prince 
himself,  there  was  vast  confusion,  havock,  conflict,  honourable  death, 
bloody  battle,  horrible  consternation,  and  upon  Tal  Moelvre  a 
thousand  banners.  There  was  an  outrageous  carnage,  and  the  rage 
of  spears,  and  hasty  signs  of  violent  indignation.  Blood  raised  the 
tide  of  the  Menai,  and  the  crimson  of  human  gore  stained  the  brine. 
There  were  glittering  cuirasses,  and  the  agony  of  gashing  wounds, 
and  the  mangled  warriors  prostrate  before  the  chief,  distinguished 
by  his  crimson  lance.  Lloegria  was  put  into  confusion,  the  contest 
and  confusion  was  great,  and  the  glory  of  our  prince's  mde-wasting 
sword  shall  be  celebrated  in  an  hundred  languages  to  give  him  his 
merited  praise." 

Advertiseineiit.  A  convenient  account  of  Owain  Gwynedd  may  be 
found  in  B.  B.  Woodward,  History  of  Wales,  London,  1859,  pp.  265- 
288.  He  succeeded  his  father  Gruffydd  ab  Cynan  (the  last  prince 
of  North  Wales  who  bore  the  title  of  king)  in  1137,  and  died  in 
1169  (or,  less  probably,  1171).  The  Battle  of  Tal  y  Moelvre,  which 
this  poem  celebrates,  is  thought  to  be  identical  with  "  the  defeat  of 
the  fleet  entrusted  by  Henry  H.  to  Madoc  ab  Meredydd  in  1157." 
See  Thomas  Stephens,  Literature  of  the  Kymry,  2d  ed..  p.  17. 

3.  Roderic's  stem.  "Owain  Gwynedd  .  .  .  was  descended  in  a 
direct  line  from  Roderic  the  Great  (Rhodri  Mawr),  prince  of  all 
Wales  (in  the  tenth  century),  who  (according  to  tradition)  divided 
his  principality  amongst  his  three  sons."     Evans's  note. 

4.  Gwyneth.  North-Wales  (Gray).  I.e.,  Gwynedd  (Venedotia). 
Owain  took  the  surname  Gwynedd  on  succeeding  to  this  principality. 

10,  Squadrons  three.  The  fleets  from  the  three  countries  men- 
tioned below. 

11.  Eirin.     Ireland. 

13.  On  her  shadow,  etc.  "The  Danish  fleet  (Lochlin)  in  a  long 
and  gay  line,  sails  on  its  own  shadow." 


172 


NOTES    ON   THE   POEMS. 


20.  Cadwallader  (Gray's  note).  Cf.  Henry  V.,  v,  i,  28  :  "  Not 
for  Cadwallader,  and  all  his  goats." 

20.  Mona.  Anglesea.  Cf.  Gray's  letter  to  Mason,  25  July  1756 
{Works,  II,  286):  "I  can  only  tell  you  not  to  go  and  take  Mona 
for  the  Isle  of  Man  ;  it  is  Anglesey,  a  tract  of  plain  country,  very 
fertile,  but  picturesque  only  from  the  view  it  has  of  Caernarvonshire, 
from  which  it  is  separated  by  the  Menai,  a  narrow  arm  of  the  sea." 

20.    See  note  on  Bard,  v.  28. 

25.  Talymalfra.     A  little  bay  on  the  N.  E.  coast  of  Anglesea. 

26.  In  Mason's  edition  of  Gray's  poems  (1775),  he  added  after 

this  line  the  following  four  lines,  saying  they  were  "  from  the  Author's 

MS.": 

"  Check'd  by  the  torrent-tide  of  blood 

Backward  Meinai  rolls  his  flood  ; 

While,  heap'd  his  master's  feet  around, 

Prostrate  Warriors  gnaw  the  ground." 


XVII. 

THE   DEATH    OF   HOEL. 

This  and  the  two  following  poems  were  probably  written  in  1764, 
and,  like  the  Trhiniphs  of  Owen,  came  from  Evans's  Specimens. 
They  were  first  published  by  Mason,  in  1775. 

The  Gododm,  from  which  these  three  pieces  are  extracts,  is  one  of 
the  few  genuine  relics  of  ancient  (sixth-century)  Welsh  poetry.  The 
author,  Aneurin,  was  contemporary  with  Taliesin.  Gray  translated 
from  the  Latin  version  given  by  Evans  in  the  Dissertatio  de  Bardis 
appended  to  his  Specimens.  The  occasion  of  the  original  poem  is 
disputed,  but  the  most  general  opinion  seems  to  be  that  it  celebrates 
a  battle  between  the  Strathclyde  Britons  and  Northumbrian  Saxons 
(see  D.  W.  Nash,  Taliesin,  1858,  p.  65;  but  cf.  Thos.  Stephens,  Lit. 
of  the  Kym-ry,  2d  ed.,  p.  3). 

The  Latin  version  is  as  follows :  « 


Evans,  pp.  71,  73. 

"  Si  mihi  liceret  sententiam  1  de  Deirorum  populo  ferre, 
Aeque  ac  diluvium  omnes  una  strage  prostrarem ; 

*  "  Fortasse,  '  Vindictam  in  Deironim  populum,'  &c." 


NOTES   ON   THE  POEMS.  173 

Amicum  enim  amisi  incautus, 

Qui  in  resistendo  firmus  erat 

Xon  petiit  magnanimus  dotem  a  socero, 

Filius  CiANi  ex  strenuo  Gwyngwn  ortus. 

"  Viri  ibant  ad  Cattraeth,  et  fuere  insignes, 
Vinum  et  mulsum  ex  aureis  poculis  erat  eorum  potus. 

•  •••■•■■• 

Trecenti  et  sexaginta  tres  aureis  torquibus  insigniti  erant, 
Ex  iis  autem  qui  nimio  potu  madidi  ad  belluni  properabant, 
Non  evasere  nisi  tres,  qui  sibi  gladiis  viam  muniebant, 
Sc.  bellator  de  Aeron  et  Conanus  Daearawd, 
Et  egomet  ipse  (sc.  Bardus  Aneurinus)  sanguine  rubens, 
Aliter  ad  hoc  carmen  compingendum  non  superstes  fuissem." 

Evans,  p.  73. 

"Quando  ad  bellum  properabat  Caradocus, 
Filius  apri  sylvestris  qui  truncando  mutilavit  hostes, 
Taurus  aciei  in  pugnae  conflictu, 
Is  lignum  {i.e.  hastam)  ex  manu  contorsit." 

Evans,  p.  75. 

"  Debitus  est  tibi  cantus,  qui  honorem  assecutus  es  maximum, 
Qui  eras  instar  ignis,  tonitrui  et  tempestatis, 
Viribus  eximie,  eques  bellicose 
Rhudd  Fedel,  bellum  meditaris." 

3.    Deira.     This  included  about  what  is  now  Yorkshire. 

II.  Cattraeth's  vale.  In  Yorkshire,  near  Richmond.  Cattraeth 
is  not  called  a  vale  in  the  original.  Stephens,  Lit.  of  tJie  Kyniry,  2d 
ed.,  p.  3,  supposes  it  to  be  the  Roman  town  "  Cataracton,  now  called 
Catterick,"  in  York. 


XIX. 

CARADOC. 


For  Gray's  remark  on  the  pronunciation  of  this  word,  see  note  on 
V.  102  of  the  Bard. 


174  NOTES   ON  THE   POEMS. 

XX. 

WILLIAM    SHAKESPEARE. 

These  verses  were  sent  in  a  letter  to  Mason  under  date  i6  July 
1765.  They  were  first  published  by  Mitford  in  The  Correspoiidetice 
of  TJionias  G7'ay  and  Willia?fi  Mason,  1853,  pp.  339-40. 

I.    Mistress  Anne.     The  servant  of  the  Rev.  Wm.  Mason  at  York. 

3.    Proper.     Handsome. 

5.  Much  have  I  borne.  Referring  to  the  eighteenth-century 
Shaksperian  critics  and  commentators. 

12.  Residence.  Mason  disliked  his  compulsory  residence  at 
York  cathedral. 

Marriage.  Mason  was  then  engaged,  and  was  married  on 
25  September. 

Sore  eyes.     Mason  was  constantly  troubled  with  weak  eyes. 

17.  Better  to  bottom  tarts,  etc.  Better  use  the  paper  on  which 
Shakspere's  works  are  printed  for  cooking  purposes  than  to  let  the 
commentators  disfigure  him. 

21.  Clouet.  A  famous  cook.  For  Gray's  studies  in  gastronomy, 
see  Works,  III,  81. 


XXL 

ODE    FOR   MUSIC. 

This  was  the  last  poem  Gray  wrote.  It  was  published  in  the  year 
of  its  composition  (1769)  as  a  thin  quarto  of  eight  pages,  ^\ith  the 
following  title-page :  Ode  Perforfned  in  the  Senate-House  at  Cam- 
bridge, Jnly  I,  iy^g,  At  the  Installation  of  his  Grace  Augtistics-Hettry 
Fitzroy,  Duke  of  Grafton,  Chancellor  of  the  University.  Set  to  Music 
by  Dr.  Randal,  Professor  of  Music.  Cambridge,  Printed  by  J.  Arch- 
deacon Printer  to  the  University.  M.  DCC.  LXIX.  The  title  over 
the  first  page  of  the  text  is  simply  Ode  for  Music.  It  is  interesting 
to  notice  that  Gray's  name  nowhere  appears  in  the  quarto.  In  this 
volume  this  ode  is  for  the  first  time  given  exactly  as  it  appeared  in 
the  original  1769  edition.  The  circumstances  which  called  it  into 
being  are  as  follows  :  The  Duke  of  Grafton  had  in  1768  made  Gray 
Professor  of  Modern  History  and  Languages  at  Cambridge,  an 
honor  for  which  the  poet  felt  genuine  gratitude.  When  the  Duke 
was  elected  Chancellor  of  the  University,  Gray  offered  to  write  an 


NOTES   ON   THE   POEMS. 


175 


Ode  to  be  sung  at  the  Installation  on  July  i,  1769.  Gray  performed 
this  task  with  reluctance,  and  evidently  felt  that  the  poetry  was  more 
artificial  than  spontaneous.  The  first  stanza,  with  its  personified 
abstractions,  reminds  one  of  his  earliest  period,  and  immediately 
suggests  Milton's  minor  poems. 

The  poem  has  really  added  nothing  to  Gray's  reputation,  and  the 
following  contemporary  criticism  seems  just:  "The  Installation  Ode 
of  Mr.  Gray  is  a  recent  instance  of  flattery  bestowed  indiscriminately 
on  the  great,  and  will  do  no  credit  to  that  celebrated  writer."  — 
Joseph  Cockfield  to  the  Rev.  Weeden  Butler,  27  July  1769,  Nichols, 
Jllustr.  of  Lit.,  V,  797. 

Mason  appended  notes  on  the  personages  mentioned  in  this  Ode. 
I  have  made  use  of  these  often,  but  with  corrections  and  additions. 

13,  Empyrean.  "  Empyrean,"  and  "  empyreal  "  are  favorite  words 
with  Milton.  The  word  is  from  Gk.  7rup  =  fire  ;  and  means  the  high- 
est heaven,  where  the  ancients  supposed  the  region  of  pure  fire  to  be. 

18.  Accomp.  This  meant  that,  though  the  recitative  was  held, 
the  next  nine  lines  were  also  accompanied. 

25.  Newton's  self.  Sir  Isaac  Newton  (1642-1727).  He  is  said 
to  have  resided  at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  for  thirty-five  years, 
without  a  month's  interruption. 

His  state  sublime.     His  chair  of  state,  as  often  in  Shakspere. 

27.  Ye  brown,  etc.  Mason  remarks  that  "  this  stanza,  being 
supposed  to  be  sung  by  Milton,  is  very  judiciously  written  in  the 
metre  "  of  the  great  Christmas  hymn.  The  stanza  is  also  full  of 
Miltonic  expressions. 

39.  Edward.  Edward  III.,  who  in  1340  formally  claimed  to  be 
king  of  France  ;  and  quartered  the  French  arms  (the  fleur  de  lys) 
with  his  own.  » 

41.  Sad  Chatillon.  Aymer  de  Valence  married,  as  his  third  wife, 
Marie  de  Castillon  (Chatillon),  daughter  of  Guy  IV.,  count  of  St. 
Pol,  5  July  1321  ;  he  died  suddenly  (murder  was  suspected)  near 
Paris,  23  June  1324.  See  Annates  Paulini,  in  Stubbs,  Chronicles 
of  the  Reigtts  of  Edward  I.  and  Edward  II.,  I,  292,  307.  His  widow, 
who  founded  Pembroke  Hall  in  1343,  long  survived  him. 

42.  Clare.  Elizabeth  de  Burgh,  daughter  of  Gilbert  de  Clare, 
Earl  of  Gloucester,  by  Joan  of  Acres,  daughter  of  Edward  I.  She 
married  John  de  Burgh,  son  and  heir  to  the  Earl  of  Ulster.  She 
afterwards  married  Roger  Damory.  She  rebuilt  Clare  Hall  (which 
had  been  founded  by  Dr.  Richard  Badew  in  1326  under  the  name  of 


176  NOTES   ON   THE   POEMS. 

University  Hall),  and  gave  it  this  name,  about  1342.  See  Dugdale, 
Baronage  of  England,  1675,  -^'  209,  217. 

43.  Anjou's  Heroine.  Margaret  of  Anjou,  wife  of  King  Henry  VI.; 
she  founded  Queen's  College  in  144S  ;  though  the  foundation  was 
not  completed  until  1465,  and  then,  curiously  enough,  by  Elizabeth, 
wife  of  Edward  IV.,  Henry's  rival.  Gray  alludes  to  Margaret  in 
the  Bard,  v.  89.  —  Paler  Rose.  Elizabeth  Woodville  ;  she  is  called 
the  paler  rose  because  her  husband,  Edward  IV.,  was  of  the  house 
of  York  —  as  distinguished  from  the  red  rose,  Lancaster. 

45.  Either  Henry.  Henry  VI.  and  Henry  VIII.  Henry  VI. 
founded  King's  College  in  1441,  and  Henry  VIII.  was  Trinity's 
greatest  benefactor  ;  Henry  VI.  is  also  said  to  have  trebled  the 
revenue  of  Pembroke  Hall. 

51.    Granta.     The  river  Cam. 

54.    Fitzroy.     The  family  name  of  the  Duke  of  Grafton. 

66.  The  Lady  Margaret  Beaufort,  daughter  of  John,  Duke  of 
Somerset,  married,  1454,  Edmund  Tudor,  Earl  of  Richmond.  Their 
son  succeeded  to  the  throne  as  Henry  VII.  See  Doyle,  Official 
Baronage,  III,  118.  "Although  Chrisfs  College  was  originally 
founded  in  the  reign  of  King  Henry  VI.  by  the  name  of  God's 
House,  yet  its  foundation  is  usually  dated  from  its  second  and  more 
ample  establishment,  by  Margaret  Countess  of  Richmond,  in  1505." 
Lysons,  Magna  Britattnia,  I,  1 20.  "  The  foundation  of  St.  John's 
College  was  projected  and  begun  by  Margaret  Countess  of  Richmond  a 
short  time  before  her  death,  which  happened  in   1509."     Ibid.,  I,  121. 

70.  A  Tudor's  fire,  etc.  "The  Countess  was  a  Beaufort,  and 
married  to  a  Tudor ;  hence  the  application  of  this  line  to  the  Duke 
of  Grafton,  who  claims  descent  from  both  these  families." — Mason. 

'ji.  The  flower  unheeded.  Cf.  Elegy,  v.  55.  Gray  means  here 
that  the  Duke  will  discover  obscure  men  of  genius  and  make  their 
merits  known. 

78.  Obvious.  In  the  literal  Latin  sense.  Cf.  Par.  Lost,  viii,  504  : 
"  Not  obvious,  not  obtrusive." 

84.  Cecil.  William  Cecil,  Lord  Burghley,  Queen  Elizabeth's 
famous  Lord  Treasurer.  He  was  elected  Chancellor  of  the  University 
of  Cambridge  in  1558.     He  was  not  made  Lord  Burghley  until  1571. 

89.  Thro'  the  wild  waves,  etc.  Mr.  Gosse  justly  calls  this  stanza 
the  only  absurd  thing  in  Gray's  poetry.  It  might  indeed  have  been 
written  by  any  Augustan  parasite. 


NOTES  ON  THE  PROSE.' 


Page  6i,  1.  23.  Gray  was  probably  thinking  of  Isaiah,  xxxiv,  13, 
14,  15:  "It  shall  be  an  habitation  of  dragons,  and  a  court  for  owls. 
The  wild  beasts  of  the  desert  shall  also  meet  with  the  wild  beasts  of 
the  island,  and  the  satyr  shall  cry  to  his  fellow ;  the  screech  owl  also 
shall  rest  there,  and  find  for  herself  a  place  of  rest.  There  shall  the 
great  owl  make  her  nest,  and  lay,  and  hatch,  and  gather  under  her 
shadow." 

62,  36.   Hyp.     Hypochondria. 

64,  17.  Sack  and  silver.  'Silver'  of  course  refers  to  the  poet 
laureate's  salary,  the  *  sack  '  is  the  famous  yearly  butt  of  Canary  wine 
from  the  king's  cellars  which  was  formerly  allowed  to  this  official. 

65,  18.    Rowe.     Nicholas  Rowe  (1673-17 18),  the  dramatist. 

65,  19-  Settle.  Elkanah  Settle  (1648-1723),  the  dramatist,  now 
remembered  only  for  his  literary  controversy  with  Dryden  in  1673. 

65,  20.  Eusden.  "  Appointed  poet  laureate  by  Lord  Halifax,  in 
17 16."     Mitford. 

65,  22.  Dryden.  It  is  interesting  to  observe  Gray's  strong  moral 
feeling  asserting  itself  ;  he  greatly  admired  Dryden's  poetry. 

65,  34.  Dick.  The  Rev.  Richard  Forester.  He  gave  up  his 
fellowship  at  the  end  of  this  month  (December,  1757). 

65,  35.  Mr.  Treasurer.  "Mr.  Joseph  Gaskarth  was  the  college 
treasurer,  but  the  subject  of  his  disagreement  with  Sir  M.  Lamb  does 
not  appear  to  be  known."     Mitford. 

Sir  M.  Lamb.  "  Probably  Sir  Matthew  Lamb,  of  Brocket  Hall, 
Herts,  created  a  Baronet  in  1755."     Mitford. 

72,  18.   A  drama.     Elfrida,  by  Mason,  published  1751. 

73,  12.  Mr.  Bentley.  Mr.  Richard  Bentley,  son  of  the  great 
scholar,  made  the  designs  for  Gray's  poems  in  the  sumptuous 
edition  of  1753. 

1  Some  of  the  important  allusions  that  required  only  a  word  of  explanation 
are  discussed  in  foot-notes  to  the  text. 


lyS  NOTES   ON   THE  PROSE. 

73,  13.  Miscellanies.  Dodsley's  Collection  of  Poems.  Three 
volumes  were  published  in  1748,  and  with  the  fourth  edition  of 
these  in  1755  ^  fourth  volume  was  added.  The  Progress  of  Poesy, 
however,  was  not  included. 

74,  21.  Designs,  etc.  The  exact  title,  as  it  finally  appeared,  was 
slightly  different  :  "  Designs  by  Mr.  R.  Bentley,  for  Six  Poems  by 
Mr.  T.  Gray  "  —  "  by  "  substituted  for  "  of  "  (before  "  Mr.  T. 
Gray  "). 

74,  24.  Richard  Hurd  (1720-1808),  the  famous  Bishop,  author 
of  the  Moral  and  Political  Dialogues,  and  Letters  on  Chivalry  and 
Romance.  For  an  account  of  his  important  influence  on  English 
Romanticism,  see  the  editor's  Beginnings  of  the  English  Romantic 
Movemetit,  pp.   1 1 2-1 15. 

75,  18.  A  player  and  a  doctor  of  divinity.  Garrick  and  Dr. 
Warburton.     Cf.  Gray's  letter  to  Wharton,  7  October  1757  {Worksj 

II,  341). 

75,  29.  So  ripe  for  the  press.  Probably  alluding  to  Hurd's  Moral 
and  Political  Dialogues,  published  shortly  after  this. 

77j  35-  These  remarks  were  made  in  a  letter  criticising  Mason's 
Caractacus. 

80,  34.  Marivaux.  Pierre  Carlet  de  Marivaux  (i 688-1 763),  dram- 
atist and  novelist.  He  was  the  author  of  the  famous  romance 
Marianne  (1731-1742),  which  has  been  sometimes  called  the  origin 
of  Richardson's  Pamela.  —  Crebillon.  C.  P.  Jolyot  de  Crebillon 
(i 707-1 778),  called  Crebillon  the  Younger,  son  of  the  dramatist 
Crebillon  the  Elder  (1674-1762).  He  was  a  writer  of  novels,  as 
corrupt  as  they  are  brilliant  and  entertaining.  For  the  influence  of 
Gray's  French  reading  on  his  style,  see  Introduction,  part  iii. 

80,  51.    Licentious.     Free  in  coining  words. 

82,  9.  Tickell.  Thomas  Tickell  (i 686-1 740).  His  poem  On  the 
Prospect  of  Peace  stood  first  in  Dodsley's  Collection. 

82,  20.    Ballad,  Coli^i  and  Lucy  (Dodsley,  I,  28). 

82,  21.  M.  Green.  Matthew  Green  (1696-1737),  author  of  The 
Spleen  (1737).     For  Gray's  debt  to  Green,  see  p.  128. 

83,  3.  Douglas.  The  famous  drama  (1756)  by  John  Home  (1722- 
1808). 

83,  30.  Dyer.  He  alludes  to  the  nature-poem  Grongar  Hill,  and 
possibly  to  the  Ruins  of  Rome  (Dodsley,  I,  220,  226),  by  John  Dyer 
(died  1758). 

83,  38.  Whitehead's.  William  Whitehead  (171 5-1785).  the 
Poet-Laureate. 


NOTES   ON   THE   PROSE. 


179 


84,  10.  Hardicanute.  Gray  was  deceived.  Ha7-dicanute  was 
written  in  imitation  of  the  old  Scottish  ballad  style  by  Lady  Ward- 
law  of  Pitrevie  in  Fife  (1677-1726-7).  It  may  be  found  in  Percy's 
Reliques. 

85,25.  "Winter."  Probably  alluding  to  lines  175-201  in /fV^/^r, 
beginning, 

"  Nor  less  at  land  the  loosen'd  tempest  reigns." 

87,  30.  Mr.  Evans.  See  note  on  The  Triumphs  of  Owen,  and 
Introduction,  part  i\'. 

94,  I5ff.  Cf.  Gray's  Latin  Alcaics  written  in  the  travelers'  book 
at  the  Grande  Chartreuse  {Works,  I,  182). 

106,  3.   Wadd-mines.     Plumbago,  or  black  lead. 


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Alexander's  Introduction  to  the  Poetry  of  Robert  Brown- 
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Cook's  Cardinal  Newman's  Essay  on  Poetry,  with  refer-  . 

ence  to  Aristotle's  Poetics.    36  pages 30 

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Cook's  Shelley's  Defense  of  Poetry.    86  pages     .     .     .  .50 

Cooper's  Aristotle  On  the  Art  of  Poetry.   xxix-|- 1  o  i  pages  .80 

Corson's  Primer  of  English  Verse.    232  pages      .     .     .  i.oo 
Gayley's  Classic  Myths  in  English  Literature  and  in  Art. 

xlii4-597  pages 1.50 

Gayley  and  Flaherty's  Poetry  of  the  People.    403  pages  .50 

Gummere's  Handbook  of  Poetics.    250  pages       .     .     .  i.oo 

Gummere's  Old  English  Ballads,    xcviii  +  380  pages      .  .80 
Hudson's  Life,  Art,  and  Characters  of  Shakespeare.  Two 

volumes,   1003   pages,   cloth,   $4.00;    half  morocco  8.00 

Long's  American  Literature,    xxi  -f-  481  pages     .     .     .  1.35 

Long's  English  Literature.    582  pages 1.35 

Manly's  English  Poetry,    xxviii  +  580  pages     ....  1.50 
Minto's    Characteristics    of    the    English    Poets.     From 

Chaucer  to  Shirley.    382  pages 1.50 

Schelling's  Elizabethan  Lyrics.   Ixix  +  3 2 7  pages    .     .      .  .75 

Schelling's  Seventeenth  Century  Lyrics.  Ixix  +  314  pages  .75 
Sneath's   Wordsworth  —  Poet  of   Nature   and   Poet  of 

Man.    320  pages 2.00 

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